Are you making service recovery tougher than it needs to be? ( 你的缺失補救是否越補越大洞?)

eHotelier.com by Dennis Rosen | November 14th, 2016

Try as hard as you might (and trust me, I’ve tried), it is impossible to be perfect. We all make mistakes. And the same applies to customer service. You and your team will occasionally make mistakes as you strive to serve your customers and will have to perform “service recovery.” This is inevitable given that service is provided in real time. But, unlike products that are made by machines, service is provided by human beings who can vary in their effectiveness over time. Further, different team members may provide the service on different days of the week or times of day increasing variability in performance.
即使試圖努力(相信我，我已經試過了)，想要完美無瑕是不可能的。仙人有時打錯鼓，凡人如我們總是會犯錯。在客戶服務方面自然同理可證。當你為顧客盡心服務時，你跟你的團隊仍會偶爾犯錯，而這時就得要服務缺失補救了。由於服務是即時(實時)提供，缺失補救自然無法避免。然而，服務並非是由機器大量統一產出的，而是由隨著時間有效率變異的人所提供。再者，不同的團隊成員在每週每日的不同時間服務客人，更增加了效能表現的變動程度。

Performing service recovery properly is crucial. Otherwise, you can hurt the trust you have developed with your customers and much of your effort to develop customer loyalty to your business can be wasted.
適切地進行服務缺失補救是重要的。否則，你會傷及你與顧客所建立起的信賴，而建立顧客忠誠度所耗費的大量心力也會被浪擲。

While you likely already realize the importance of proper service recovery, you may not have considered that there are three kinds of service recovery situations that you have to work with in your business: immediate-complaint recovery, delayed-complaint recovery and real-time error recovery. The differences among them are important to understand.
你很可能早已明瞭恰當的缺失補救是重要的，然而你可能尚未考量到有三種在工作中會遭遇到的服務缺失補救類型，分別是：當下抱怨補救、延時抱怨補救、即時(實時)錯誤補救。釐清這三種補救的差異是重要的。

(圖片摘自電影「五星級美好人生(A Five Star Life)」– 檢視房間)

Immediate-complaint recovery(當下抱怨補救)

This is a service problem happening when an employee is not present, and the problem is so clear that it results in a quick complaint. For example, if the hotel room TV is not working or the toilet is constantly running, it will likely generate a quick call to the front desk.
這是指員工不在現場時所發生的服務狀況，而此狀況顯而易見並很快造成客訴。比方，如果客房裡的電視機故障或者馬桶經常水流不止，這很容易就讓住客一通電話找前檯服務人員反應。

(圖片摘自電影「五星級美好人生(A Five Star Life)」– 退房離開)

Delayed-complaint recovery(延時抱怨補救)

This concerns something that has occurred sometime previous to the complaint.  It may have been a service failure that your customer did not notice until later or maybe choose not to talk about at the time it occurred. Or it may concern something that happened with no employee present and the customer was unsure at the time about complaining. The customer trips on something on the business floor with no one in sight, for example. Or maybe an employee’s response to a question is bothersome, but the customer doesn’t say anything at the time. Maybe the hotel room bed is uncomfortable, but the customer suffers through it for the night. The complaint may come hours or even days after the incident occurred.
這是關於發生在過去某個時間的抱怨事件。那可能已是項服務缺失，但顧客在第一時間未察，直到之後才發覺，又或者是在問題發生之際，顧客選擇什麼都不說。又可能是狀況發生之時沒有酒店員工在場，而顧客不確定是否要客訴，比方像是有客人到商務中心區辦些事情，但卻沒有服務人員在現場。抑或是某個酒店員工對客人問題的反應與回覆令客人感到厭惡，但客人卻在當下不表示意見。又像是客房的床讓客人睡得不安穩，而客人忍受一整晚。因此這類客訴可能會在事件發生後數小時或數日才顯露出來。

(圖片摘自電影「五星級美好人生(A Five Star Life)」– 身後的酒店管家把行李就定位)

Real-time-error recovery(即時/實時錯誤補救)

This concerns a service failure that happens in real time in the presence of an employee. The employee may be directly involved or simply a bystander. Maybe the waiter at the restaurant gives the customer the wrong order.  Maybe the customer can’t find something he/she is looking for and this customer’s confusion is apparent to a nearby employee. Maybe a registration line is unusually long leading to customer frustration. In other words, there has been a failure in service that is being experienced by the customer at that moment with an employee present at the time of the error or problem.
這是指服務缺失發生的同時有酒店員工在場。該名酒店員工可能是該缺失的當事人或僅是名旁觀者。可能是餐廳侍者端錯菜給客人；可能是顧客找不到想要的物品，而該顧客的困惑狀態對於一旁的酒店員工是顯而易見；可能辦理登記入住的排隊人龍異常地長，導致顧客不滿。換言之，一名顧客在當時經歷了一項服務缺失，而該錯誤或問題發生之際有服務人員在現場。

Not all recoveries are equally easy to accomplish(並非所有的補救都同樣容易解決)

Immediate-complaint recovery is generally the easiest to handle since the problem and solution are usually clear.
當下抱怨補救通常是最容易處理，因為問題與解決方式通常都很清楚明白。

Delayed-complaint recovery, on the other hand, is generally the most difficult to handle. First, when customers complain later about something that happened to them, it is often means they have continued to think about it and have gotten angrier. To get up the nerve to complain, they may have mentally prepared for what they fear will be an argument. While an employee may have been involved in the original incident, the person they finally complain to may be someone else. The complaint receiver, therefore, may not know the circumstances and may not be able to verify the nature of the problem because of their lack of involvement in the original incident.
反觀延時抱怨補救則通常是最難以處理的。首先，當顧客之後才抱怨稍早發生在他們身上的狀況時，這通常表示該狀況已縈繞在他們腦海中久久不散而且對此感到更加憤怒。為了豎起神經大肆抱怨，他們在心理上已準備好爭吵的最壞打算。雖然在最初的缺失狀況已有某位酒店員工涉入，但顧客最後反應客訴的對象可能會是其他非當事人的員工。因此，這位客訴接收者應該會對當初的狀況所知甚少，再者也因為不是當事者而無法搞清楚該問題的本質。

Real-time-error recovery is, again, easier to deal with since an employee is present and is aware of the situation, so he/she can quickly respond.
即時(實時)錯誤補救還是比較容易處理，畢竟有位酒店員工在現場並察覺到該狀況，因此他/她能很快地反應處理。

It is commonly noted that customers are more likely to return if recovery happens quickly. Obviously, it is easier to do this in a real-time-error recovery or immediate-complaint recovery situations than one involving delayed-complaint recovery.
通常要注意的是如果能快速進行缺失補救的話，顧客更有可能再度入住或回流。顯而易見，即時(實時)錯誤補救或當下抱怨補救比起延時抱怨補救來得容易處理。

(圖片摘自電影「五星級美好人生(A Five Star Life)」– 酒店總經理得知祕密客只因床底下用過的拖鞋而評比不及格時感到不悅)

Service recovery strategies(服務缺失補救策略)

So how can we improve the recovery process?
那麼我們該如何改進補救的程序？

A service error should never be allowed to transfer into delayed-complaint recovery.
一項服務缺失斷不可轉變為延時抱怨補救。

If there is a failure in real time caused or observed by an employee or a complaint that is clear cut, it should be handled immediately. This requires several things: First, employees must be empowered to handle real-time errors and immediate complaints as they happen. Many potential errors can be anticipated and guidelines for handling them can be established along with a certain amount of leeway allowed based upon employee judgment and experience.
如果某個即時服務缺失是因某個酒店員工所造成或被觀察到，抑或該客訴的狀況是單純明暸，那麼就應該立刻處置。而這需要下列幾項要素：首先，當即時服務缺失與當下客訴發生時，員工應該立即被授權處理。許多可能的錯誤都可以被預想到，而建立缺失補救的指導方針得要保留員工現場判斷與經驗運用的彈性餘地。

Second, the team should be trained to view recovery as part of their job and an important opportunity to build the customer relationship. Employees who instead view recovery as a disruption to their work may tend to avoid real-time recovery.
其次，服務團隊應被訓練成「視缺失補救為其工作的一環」以及「視缺失補救為建立顧客關係的重要契機」。若員工把缺失補救視為平時工作的擾亂者，則會錯失即時(實時)缺失補救的機會。

Finally, when faced with any form of service recovery, the team must be trained to consider the long-term value of a customer. Many may think only in the short term and believe they are helping the business when they save it a few dollars by not giving into a request during service recovery. The result can be lost customers and a significant loss of long-term revenue.
最後，當服務團隊面對任一形式的服務缺失補救時，必須被訓練成能考量到顧客的長期價值。許多人可能只考量到短期價值，且當他們處理缺失補救時，因沒有對客人的要求退讓而能省下些許開支，並深信此舉有益於公司營運。不過，這樣的結果會導致顧客流失及長期收益的重大損失。

Is the service error systematic?(服務缺失已是組織常態?)

While service recovery is an opportunity to build the relationship, repeated recovery for the same error is not. In such circumstances, customers will soon come to realize that the error is not random but rather is built into the system, and they won’t come back. Getting feedback from customers and tracking recovery issues can help uncover such systematic problems.
雖然服務缺失補救是建立顧客關係的好機會，但對於老問題的經常性補救則不是。因為在這樣的狀況下，顧客很快就會明白這服務缺失並非隨機發生在他們身上而是這旅館酒店本身的組織營運問題，於是他們就不再回流光顧了。獲得顧客意見反饋以及追蹤補救個案能讓服務團隊發現類似的組織營運問題。

Proper service recovery is essential. It takes planning, training and trust in your team, but the rewards will be well worth your efforts.
適切的服務缺失補救是重要的。它需要規劃、訓練及對服務團隊的信任，而其獎勵將會大大高過於你當時的努力付出。

About the author

Dr. Dennis Rosen is The WinFluence® Expert on customer service and sales improvement. He helps retailers, service providers and professionals provide a Transformational Customer Experience to create customer devotion that leads to customer promotion. Dennis shows sales forces how to lower customer barriers to information and change attitude to increase sales effectiveness. He is author of the book, Create Devoted Customers and the instructional audio, The Mental-Rental Sales Process. Dennis delivers value-filled presentations with an entertaining style; keynotes, training and educational materials are available – 800-804-4034 or visit www.Face2FaceService.Com.

*「小派，你那個『五星級美好人生』是什麼?」
「哦，你可以到分類1的目錄去找，或是按此。」