The Red Lights

• Never argue (Not even with your body language)
• Don’t agree with a negative observation.
• Don’t up-sell (if you did the job right in the first place, you won’t be able to.)
• Never say anything that highlights or reactivates any possible regrets:

              “Will that be all today?

              “How will you be paying?”

I have found that handling customer returns is a great opportunity to sell customers another product that might be more appropriate for their needs, provided you handle the customer correctly from the start. I have demonstrated this in live situations while training staff and the customer often leaves having spent more than they initially did in the first place.

The key thing to keep in mind is that a return should run as smoothly as the initial sale and rapport needs to be maintained at all times. The relationship with the customer is paramount and all efforts need to be geared towards retaining and preserving the relationship as the primary outcome.

In my opinion a return or customer complaint is a moment of truth for your business. Having placed their trust in your company initially and purchased your product, when the something goes wrong and the financial transaction is no longer in your favour, this is when the customer begins to see how good and trustworthy your customer service really is.

Alienate one customer and they will tell 10 of their friends, treat one customer exceptionally well and they may tell 2 or 3 friends. Like friendships, new customer relationships are made of silver but old customer relationships are made of gold.

That's my 2c worth anyway.