In the December Metaphor Minute, I shared how one person uses a sand metaphor during holiday get-togethers to neutralize potential explosions with relatives who vehemently disagree with him. Now that we are in the new year and back at work, here’s a fresh metaphor to salvage a different potential relationship disaster: the irate customer with a complaint.
A Little Background
Jim Nowakowski is a business strategist, author, and marketing communications pro. He knows that Customer Service is always top of mind these days with companies. “You can’t go to a store without being asked to ‘fill out the survey’ code on your receipt. Your emails are filled with requests for rating the ‘experience.’”
“But,” challenges Jim, “What really is customer service? Definitions have always been important to me as an English major (Aristotle said it best…you can’t understand anything without defining your terms), so ask yourself: what does ‘customer service’ really mean?”
Jim recently had a client project that focused on best-of-class customer service; they wanted to know what they and their competitors were doing in the marketplace. His assignment was to find out where these customer service bars of excellence exist.
“We found out enormous information, which actually boiled down to what is always at the root of a customer service experience – the customer! You can have the best product in the world, but if it fails for a customer, it is the worst. So, in any customer service experience, the person handling the customer actually starts in “minus” – the customer is not happy when that call takes place.”
Turn That Minus Into a Plus
Jim shared the results of his study in detail with the client and concluded with this compelling analogy to drive home his point.
“I said that the call into customer service already starts with a negative attitude – something has gone wrong. So, the call center has 
complete power over the tension, just like a rubber band. If both pull, it eventually breaks. ‘Pulling’ from your point of view is putting them on hold for half an hour…not having the solution available…bouncing the call from person to person…getting disconnected. “
“BUT if you let yourself BE pulled, you are actually in control of the situation. Listening, empathy, reflecting sincere feelings back, and solving the problem even at a loss of revenue will all work for you and keep you in control. The person pulling (because he or she is emotionally charged), has no idea that you are in control. You will win every time.”
Your Turn
Since there is a natural inclination to personalize customer complaints and/or to become defensive when you are the target of a complaint, Jim’s fresh reframing of the complaint dynamic goes a long way to helping his clients become more mindful of how they treat irate customers — ultimately enabling them to save and grow their business.
Good to keep this metaphor in mind to improve your own handling of customer complaints.
Anne Miller
Make What You Say Pay! – with Metaphors
P.S. For more information on Jim:
Twitter handle: @interlinejim
Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-nowakowski-a1aa0b26/
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