Handling Complaints Without Making Things Worse

Copyright © 2008 Mark Silver




The email comes, or the phone rings, and there's an absolute flood pouring right at you. "Hey, you didn't do what you said you would do. This didn't work as advertised. You goofed!"



Yup, a complaint. Ahhh! A complaint?! But you poured your heart and soul into it, how could they complain?



Then you take a breath, and you read what they're asking for, and you realize... they were right. You DID make a mistake. Things are goofed up, perhaps badly.



Time to hang up your hat and go work in a cafe?



Well, no, not really. But it can sure feel that way. Why is it that when you get a complaint it always stirs you up?



I could say it's a gift from Source (and it is) but let's not go there immediately. Before you try to figure it out, take a moment, or two, or an hour, or even half a day, for yourself.



That's right, you don't have to respond immediately.



Not every complaint is going to shake you, but when they do resist the urge to respond immediately. Instead, take time for yourself to feel upset, to connect with your heart, and to realize that perhaps it's not as bad as you might think.



Once you catch up to your heart, then it's time to respond. Let's take a look, shall we?



We apologize for any inconvenience...



This is exactly what you -don't- want to say. Unfortunately, there's been 'corporate' language creeping into every day speech. Plus, as a small business owner, you don't necessarily see what other small business owners do in the dark of their email inboxes, so you don't have other examples.



You and I are only used to seeing the kind of emails/letters/phone calls that the big boys send out to their millions of customers.



This is not what you want to emulate. Not.



The three most important things in an apology response.



When someone complains, they are actually giving you an incredible testimonial. You see, trust and hope have been broken so often in our culture, that many people just take average or below-average as 'normal.'



For instance, our trash can broke just a year or two after we bought it. A trash can? It should last for years, really, but I didn't expect any better. And I didn't complain to anyone (except my wife.)



So, if you get a complain, that means they trust you enough to show you how much they wanted your offer/product/service to work for them. That they trusted you enough to handle them with care, even when they are upset. That they trusted that you will take care of them.



That's a lot of trust.



So, how about those three things that are needed in the response? Let's take a closer look at them.



Keys to Caring for Complaints.

Hear ye, O hear ye!

First and foremost they want to be heard. They want you to hear the facts of the matter, but even more importantly, they want you to get that they are upset to some degree.



Read their email, or letter, or listen to the words they spoke carefully. Did they say they were "frustrated?" Or did they say they were "really upset!" Did their tone sound like it had a LOT of energy in it, or was it fairly mild.



You want to let them know that you get exactly how upset they are, and the tone of the emotion. If someone says "really upset!" don't say: "Sounds like you're a little frustrated."



They aren't a little frustrated- they are "really upset!" So let them know you see it: "Wow, I get that you are really upset! I'm glad you let me know how upset you are!"

It's 'me' not 'we.'

We've all been trained to say "we" in these kinds of situations. "We apologize for any inconvenience." But, seriously, who is "we?" Even if you have a company of 10,000, you are the person responding.



They showed you trust by complaining, show them trust by being a little vulnerable here, don't hide behind the 'we' even if other people were involved.



For instance: 'I'm sad about the goof, because I want you to get the best from me (or us if there is more than one of you), and I'm grateful you let me know so I can fix it.'

Accountability.

Tell them how you're going to fix the problem. Give details. Instead of 'We'll replace it for you.' try writing something like this:



'I'm putting the replacement in the mail today by priority mail- you should have it in about three days. Please let me know when you receive it and if it's in good shape.'



Most of all, respond to the people who complain as you would talk to a good friend, not to someone who you need to hide from or keep at an arm's length.



An example.



We received an email asking about an order- and, you know what, our system dropped the order, and we weren't tracking. We got paid, but we never shipped the item. Luckily, this happens rarely.



The instinct from corporate examples is to respond like this:



"We apologize for any inconvenience. We're sending you a replacement copy immediately, and you should have it very soon. We really appreciate your business, and we want to make this right with you.



Sincerely,"



It's perfectly fine, in some ways. And yet, here is how we like to respond:



"Wow- I'm so sorry that we goofed your order like that! Ugh! I can imagine you've been frustrated, wondering where in the heck your order is, and here it is more than a week later!



"I want you to know that I just put your book into a priority mail envelope and it's going out today. It should take about three days to get to you. If you don't have it by Tuesday, let me know.



"apologies! appreciation!



"Mark (or whomever is writing the email)"



And, we also usually put a little extra gift in the package, as a surprise, when we goof.



If you let yourself breathe through your initial reaction to a complaint, then you will see the deep trust that is being given, and you can return it in a way that will feel great to your heart.



Stick with saying "me" instead of "we," being authentic, and show them how you are going to fix it, and you'll see how goof-ups can actually be doorways to creating deeper trust, and your upset clients just might turn into raving fans.



The best to you and your business,



Mark Silver






About The Author:

Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service



Handling Complaints Without Making Things Worse, by Mark Silver

Small Business Health Insurance: Escaping the Catch-22

Copyright © 2008 Melissa Mashtonio




As the economy continues to tank so do the number of Americans without health insurance—and the number small business owners who can afford to insure their employees.



A recent survey by the NFIB Research Foundation, a small business advocacy group, showed that only 47 percent of small business owners offer employee health benefits. Those employing 20 or more people are more than twice as likely to offer employee health benefits as those with fewer than 10.



The survey found that the low numbers are primarily the result of new small businesses opting not to cover employees. Most small businesses who offer benefits have offered them for a while and are reluctant to drop them for fear of losing good employees.



“It’s much better for employee morale if a small-business owner never offers health benefits, than it is to offer them and then be forced to take it away because it is too expensive to continue,” said William J. Dennis, NFIB’s senior research fellow. “Small-business owners experience considerable turmoil in their early years. They often experience cash flow problems and are reluctant to incur additional expenses such as health insurance. What’s new to this picture is that it appears that new small-business owners are waiting longer or choosing not to offer health insurance benefits to their employees at all.”



The fact that new small businesses are choosing not to offer benefits is a disturbing trend because of the swift turnover of the small business population. If the trend continues, the number of employers who never offer benefits will increase. And that will hurt small businesses because it will limit thet talent pool from which they draw.



What Can Be Done?



Small businesses aren’t alone in struggling with the cost of health care (and premiums) in the current economic climate. The U.S. Census Bureau reports 47 million people, or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population, were without health insurance during 2006



Unfortunately for the small business owner, new legislative approaches to help the uninsured may actually hurt them. One popular option is the "pay-or-play" mandate, in which employers are required to either provide health insurance for their employees or pay a penalty to offset costs the government incurs to provide health care for the uninsured. The rules likely would only apply to full-time employees.



Proponents say such mandates could significantly reduce the ranks of the uninsured, since the vast majority of the uninsured are in families with at least one full-time worker. Many of these are low-income families, suggesting that such measures could benefit the working poor.



Opponents argue that many low-wage workers will just be paid less, reduced to part-time or laid off to offset the insurance costs.



In their paper, "Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment," researchers Katherine Baicker and Helen Levy found several factors affect the extent to which such mandates cost more jobs:

Cost of the insurance.

How much of the cost of coverage will be passed on to workers via lower wages.

How many uninsured workers have earnings so close to the minimum wage that their wages cannot be reduced enough to offset the cost of the new coverage.

The authors found that the mandate would still leave 54 percent of American workers without coverage.



“The vast majority of those who benefit from pay or play mandate live in families with incomes twice the poverty line or more and, depending on how coverage is determined, the mandate will leave a significant share of the working poor ineligible for such benefits either because their hourly wage rate is too high or they work for smaller exempt firms,” the authors wrote.



Most experts agree that such mandates are bad for small businesses. Employers are faced with hard choices. In the NFIB poll, only 20 percent of small employers said they would simply provide the insurance as required. Many more said they would either cut jobs or move more employees to part-time status.



Moving people to part-time work is a particularly attractive option to small business owners. In fact, how part-time employees are treated is a key influencing factor on whether small businesses support pay or play legislation.



According to NFIB, “The treatment of these employees will alter relative costs in one direction or the other, providing small employers’ strong relative incentive to change.”



Small business experts agree that if part-time employees are covered by a mandate, most employers will respond by simply eliminating jobs, adding to the jobless rate and doing nothing for the rate of uninsured.



Small business owners have always faced an uncertain future but the current economy and the health care crisis make this an extremely tough time to take the startup step.






About The Author:

Melissa Mashtonio writes for Manta.com, the authority for finding 45 million free small to large company profiles worldwide-and their related industries and products. Manta’s Small Business Center features thousands of how-to-guides for small business owners. http://www.manta.com/

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service



Small Business Health Insurance: Escaping the Catch-22, by Melissa Mashtonio

Does The Cutting Edge Of Social Media Really Pay?

Copyright © 2008 Mark Silver




So someone asks you: "What's your Twitter name?" And you look at them like they are a loony. Twitter? Huh?



And then the next person asks you, "You blog, right? What's the URL?"



Hold it. What happened? In the seeming blink of an eye, suddenly there's all this new so-called 'social media' on the web, and you know nothing about it.



What's worse, is that everyone else seems to be there already. It's like you went to the bathroom, and when you came out, the party moved on, leaving you in a dark room with empty glasses all around you.



Time to drop everything and catch up with the party... quickly! Quickly!



And let's say you catch up with the party...



You've got your blog, your Twitter name, and all of those things. And no matter how fast you run with it all, it doesn't seem to be making much of a difference.



The world IS moving, you can't safely ignore it. And yet chasing after it isn't working. What to do?



Innovation is a no-no.



There is a teaching in Sufism that speaks against innovation. Well, not all innovation, and only in certain circumstances.



This is sometimes where people get the idea that Islam is anti-science or anti-progress. Not true.



In the twelth century, during Europe's 'dark ages,' Islamic culture had some of the most advanced universities, scientists, and doctors in the world, at the very cutting edge of modern technology. The problem with innovation is that it can feed on itself.



Innovation is forbidden when it becomes a false idol.



We've come to think about technology as 'computers' or 'science.' But, the word 'technology comes from the Greek 'tekhnologia' meaning, an interest in an 'art or craft' (Oxford American Dictionaries).



The problem comes when someone studies technology for its own sake. For our personalities, our egos, the lure of 'newness' is strong. New sensations and learnings can encompass all of our attention, immerse us in the experience.



This can be a good, because immersion is a great way to learn. The problem is that with something like all the innovation happening in web technology, is that there is no defined 'end' point. There is no way to tell externally when you've done enough.



If you get caught in this loop, you can emerge months or years later, having totally lost track of the path you are on.



The irony is- people want connection.



The irony of web-based social media like blogs and Twitter is that it's coming out of the deeper hunger to connect to community, to love, to Source. Yet all of this innovation in the internet can leave you exhausted and isolated- even if you're good at it and like it.



As you may already know, that connection you're yearning for is in your heart, not Twitter. It's in the hearts of other people, not in the technology. If you forget that, you'll be lost. By remembering your true intention, then technology can be useful to you.



So do I blog and Twitter, or not?



Well, I'll give you a definitive answer: it depends. :) It depends on your business, and the hearts of the people you are trying to reach.



If you work with younger adults or teens, or with engineers or gadget geeks, then yes, you're going to want to meet them where they are, which is usually on the cutting edge of the latest toys.



If you don't, it may not be as critical. And, even if you suspect that a good portion of your audience is found in the 'blogosphere' as it's sometimes called, there's still no need to be so urgent about it.



How do you proceed? Well, take breath, connect to your heart, and let's take a look.



Keys to Technology

Your current website and newsletter is not obsolete!

Don't panic and discard what you've got now. Just because all of this new stuff is out there doesn't mean what you already have isn't perfect for what you're doing. My bicycle is more than fifteen years old, and it gets me around just fine. And, if you haven't even gotten your website done yet, it's still more than worthwhile to finish.

You don't need the latest, just adequate.

Unless your business is about social media and cutting-edge web technology, in which case you probably aren't even reading this article (hiya!), then forget about Twitter, Pownce, Digg, Stumble-Upon, del.icio.us for right now. You don't need anything but entry-level basic. Just start reading some blogs, without being in a rush. Here's a few to start with:



Dawud Miracle (http://www.dmiracle.com/)
Michael Martine (http://www.michaelmartine.com/)
Adam Kayce (http://www.viverati.com)
Heart of Business (my own) (http://www.heartofbusiness.com/wordpress)

Set a 1-3 month 'safe zone' of learning.

As you begin to learn, tell yourself that you don't have to do anything about it for one to three months, that you are just going to learn. It will work even better if you find a friend or colleague who can give you an hour or three for a personal guided tour of this stuff.



This approach doesn't just apply to blogs, but it applies to most anything new you need to learn about your business. And, once you understand the basics, the more obscure pieces will come MUCH more quickly.



You might actually find yourself enjoying the technology. :)



With blogs and other social media, remember that technology is just a tool, and that the craft you are studying is not blogs. You are involved with the craft of connection, and you're just learning a new tool to do what you already know something about.



Don't let gurus rush you. Take a breath, and dip in. You may find that all of this innovation and technology can actually increase your connection to what you care about most.



The best to you and your business,
Mark Silver






About The Author:

Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service



Does The Cutting Edge Of Social Media Really Pay?, by Mark Silver