Complaint is also advertising
Barbara Haas-Schöttli teaches the right way to deal with dissatisfied customers in her courses
Barbara Haas-Schöttli teaches the right way to deal with dissatisfied customers in her coursesBy Anita Vaucher For more than 16 years, Barbara Haas-Schöttli and her one-woman business BHS have dedicated themselves to the dark chapter of complaints, an area of corporate communication that is still criminally neglected by the majority of companies.
The core task of customer loyalty begins with the correct handling of complaints. 91 percent of disappointed customers never come back. Worse still, every lost customer tells ten other people, according to the experience of the complaints specialist.
Barbara Haas-Schöttli does not preach theory. She gained her first practical experience at a young age at the Comptoir in Lausanne, when she had to answer rebellious female customers at a sales stand.
Later, when she was in charge of customer service at a company and had to endure the most outlandish tirades, to which she was more or less helpless and without a valid counterargument, she realized how important it was to deal properly with dissatisfied customers. There she understood that customer service is not a cost center, but a profit center.
After intensive further training and the acquisition of a PR consultant diploma, it was clear to the former Miss Switzerland and one-time soldier in the Swiss army that she would start her own business.
Aggressive behavior has tended to increase in recent years, she is convinced. Stress has penetrated all areas of life. And yet we have never really learned how to deal with aggressive behavior, says Haas-Schöttli, who devours at least one reference book a week. After all, no one is naturally gifted at mastering stressful situations, she adds. The result, she says, is a leisure-oriented, "easy-going" attitude and complete demotivation at work.
Nobody likes to be plagued by customers
In order to no longer be helplessly exposed to this powerlessness, BHS Training, in addition to standard courses, mainly offers tailor-made solutions for companies that have recognized the importance of dealing with dissatisfied customers in the right way. Every year, approximately 1000 participants enroll in the BHS training. This is aimed at both the telephone operator and secretary as well as the management. Haas-Schöttli insists that the entire department attend the course in order to create understanding at all levels for the neglected area of customer service.
When she always asks the course participants about the most difficult situation in daily customer contact, the answer comes out of the blue, says Barbara Haas-Schöttli. It's the complaints that give customer service employees sleepless nights. And if you haven't learned any other way, you counter the customer's pressure with counterpressure and the conflict is already pre-programmed and the mood is highly charged, Haas-Schöttli reports.
However, she also points out in her courses that it always takes two to argue and that it's not just the customer who's in the dock. Answers from customer service such as "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do" or "It won't break on its own, you must have dropped it" would annoy the customer. Working together with the customer to find the best solution so that both sides emerge as winners is Haas-Schöttli's credo.
Involve customers in problem solving
For example, in the case of delivery delays, she advises not to wait until the customer asks about the whereabouts of the goods. The company must take the initiative by contacting the customer and proposing various solutions. This way, the customer has to deal with the proposed options and has no time or opportunity to complain at all. And because he has been involved in solving the problem, he does not feel like a customer left in the lurch, but a partner of the company.
And when Haas-Schöttli passes on puns like "Customer service means serving the customer" or "I like complaints because they give me an opportunity to advertise," to her course participants, they must get the feeling that customer service is absolutely the most interesting and important department of a company.
The core task of customer loyalty begins with the correct handling of complaints. 91 percent of disappointed customers never come back. Worse still, every lost customer tells ten other people, according to the experience of the complaints specialist.
Barbara Haas-Schöttli does not preach theory. She gained her first practical experience at a young age at the Comptoir in Lausanne, when she had to answer rebellious female customers at a sales stand.
Later, when she was in charge of customer service at a company and had to endure the most outlandish tirades, to which she was more or less helpless and without a valid counterargument, she realized how important it was to deal properly with dissatisfied customers. There she understood that customer service is not a cost center, but a profit center.
After intensive further training and the acquisition of a PR consultant diploma, it was clear to the former Miss Switzerland and one-time soldier in the Swiss army that she would start her own business.
Aggressive behavior has tended to increase in recent years, she is convinced. Stress has penetrated all areas of life. And yet we have never really learned how to deal with aggressive behavior, says Haas-Schöttli, who devours at least one reference book a week. After all, no one is naturally gifted at mastering stressful situations, she adds. The result, she says, is a leisure-oriented, "easy-going" attitude and complete demotivation at work.
Nobody likes to be plagued by customers
In order to no longer be helplessly exposed to this powerlessness, BHS Training, in addition to standard courses, mainly offers tailor-made solutions for companies that have recognized the importance of dealing with dissatisfied customers in the right way. Every year, approximately 1000 participants enroll in the BHS training. This is aimed at both the telephone operator and secretary as well as the management. Haas-Schöttli insists that the entire department attend the course in order to create understanding at all levels for the neglected area of customer service.
When she always asks the course participants about the most difficult situation in daily customer contact, the answer comes out of the blue, says Barbara Haas-Schöttli. It's the complaints that give customer service employees sleepless nights. And if you haven't learned any other way, you counter the customer's pressure with counterpressure and the conflict is already pre-programmed and the mood is highly charged, Haas-Schöttli reports.
However, she also points out in her courses that it always takes two to argue and that it's not just the customer who's in the dock. Answers from customer service such as "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do" or "It won't break on its own, you must have dropped it" would annoy the customer. Working together with the customer to find the best solution so that both sides emerge as winners is Haas-Schöttli's credo.
Involve customers in problem solving
For example, in the case of delivery delays, she advises not to wait until the customer asks about the whereabouts of the goods. The company must take the initiative by contacting the customer and proposing various solutions. This way, the customer has to deal with the proposed options and has no time or opportunity to complain at all. And because he has been involved in solving the problem, he does not feel like a customer left in the lurch, but a partner of the company.
And when Haas-Schöttli passes on puns like "Customer service means serving the customer" or "I like complaints because they give me an opportunity to advertise," to her course participants, they must get the feeling that customer service is absolutely the most interesting and important department of a company.
