The Customer You Almost Lost Might Be Your Most Valuable One

Spending some time in Palm Beach, Florida, I started thinking about something we don't talk about enough in business.

Palm Beach is the kind of place where expectations are naturally high. Beautiful hotels, restaurants, luxury real estate, private clubs, professional services, you are surrounded by businesses serving customers who have plenty of options.

And when people have options, the little things become a big deal.

It reminded me that being “premium” isn't really about marble floors, expensive furniture or charging more.

Premium is how a company behaves when something goes wrong.

Because something eventually will.

The room won't be ready. The order will be wrong. Someone will miss an email. A campaign won't perform the way everyone hoped. A contractor will run into a delay. An employee will make a mistake.

That's business.

What happens in the next 30 minutes tells me far more about a company than what happens when everything goes perfectly.

I Pay Attention to the Recovery

Think about staying at a great hotel.

Your room isn't ready when expected.

That's frustrating.

One employee can make it worse by basically telling you, “That's our policy. You'll have to wait.”

Another can say:

“We should have had this ready. Let me take care of your bags, get you comfortable, and I'll personally let you know the moment it's available.”

Same room.

Same delay.

Completely different experience.

Nothing magical happened.

Somebody simply took ownership.

I've seen versions of this in almost every industry.

A great restaurant doesn't argue with you for 15 minutes over a steak.

A great real estate agent doesn't disappear when the transaction gets complicated.

A great contractor doesn't make the homeowner chase them for an update.

A great agency doesn't wait for the client to discover something isn't performing.

The businesses I respect most understand something simple:

Bad news should travel faster than good news.

If You Own a Restaurant, Fix the Table Before You Fix the Marketing

Restaurant owners spend thousands trying to get somebody through the door.

Then something goes wrong during dinner and the manager hides in the back.

That's crazy to me.

If the kitchen is running behind, tell the table.

If something isn't right, fix it.

If a customer has clearly had a poor experience, don't wait until they write a Google review to acknowledge it.

You already paid to acquire that customer.

Don't lose them over something that might have cost $40 to make right.

Sometimes the least expensive marketing decision you'll make all month is comping the dessert and genuinely apologizing.

If You're in Real Estate, Your Value Shows Up When the Deal Gets Ugly

Anybody can look like a great agent when the offer is accepted, inspection is clean and financing sails through.

What happens when it doesn't?

That's when the client discovers what they actually hired.

Inspection problems.

Appraisal issues.

Financing delays.

Difficult negotiations.

Closing complications.

A good agent doesn't necessarily have the power to eliminate those things.

They have the ability to make the client feel like somebody competent is standing between them and the chaos.

That's valuable.

In stressful industries, customers aren't paying you to control reality. They're paying you to help them navigate it.

Contractors: Silence Makes Everything Feel Worse

This one is huge.

If a project is going to be delayed three days, the delay might not destroy the relationship.

Ignoring the homeowner for three days might.

Call first.

Tell them what happened.

Give them the new expectation.

Then update them when you said you would—even if the update is simply that you're still waiting.

People can handle bad news surprisingly well.

What people hate is uncertainty.

A lot of “customer service problems” are actually uncertainty problems.

Nobody knows what's happening, so they naturally assume the worst.

Agencies Need to Stop Hiding Behind Reports

This applies directly to my own industry.

Marketing doesn't always move in a straight line.

An advertisement can underperform.

A funnel can convert poorly.

Creative can get tired.

Costs can rise.

Something that worked six months ago can stop working.

If you're managing somebody else's money, don't bury that inside a 30-page report and hope they don't notice.

Talk about it.

“This isn't where we want it. Here's what we're seeing. Here's what we're changing. Here's when we're evaluating it again.”

I'd rather have that conversation than pretend everything is wonderful until the client asks why it isn't.

Clients don't expect you to control every variable.

They should be able to expect honesty.

Give Employees Permission to Save the Customer

This is where owners can make an immediate change.

Your employees shouldn't need a board meeting to solve a $50 problem.

Give the right front-line employees a reasonable amount of authority to make things right.

Maybe it's $25 at a restaurant.

Maybe it's $100 at a hotel.

Maybe it's a service credit.

Maybe it's overnighting a replacement without asking who technically caused the problem.

Every industry will have a different number.

The idea is the same:

Don't spend $500 worth of organizational time approving a $50 solution.

And don't make an already-frustrated customer wait while four people decide whether they're allowed to help them.

Start Tracking “Saves”

Most companies track complaints.

Try tracking saves.

A save is a customer who had a legitimate reason to be disappointed but stayed because somebody handled the situation exceptionally well.

Those are worth studying.

Who saved the relationship?

How quickly did they respond?

What did they say?

What authority did they use?

Did the customer purchase again?

Did they leave a positive review later?

Did they refer someone?

Now you've turned customer-service problems into business intelligence.

I'd even recognize employees for great saves.

We celebrate the salesperson who brings the customer in.

Why wouldn't we celebrate the employee who prevents a valuable customer from leaving?

Read Your Bad Reviews Differently

One-star reviews aren't always fair.

Some are ridiculous.

But don't dismiss all of them because a few are.

Look for patterns.

One person saying nobody answered the phone could be an isolated incident.

Twenty people saying it is an operating problem.

One customer complaining about a long wait may mean nothing.

Fifty customers mentioning it are telling you exactly where to look.

That's free consulting.

You don't need to agree with every customer.

You do need to become good at separating noise from patterns.

Your reviews may be telling you about a problem your management reports haven't found yet.

Here's the Part Palm Beach Really Made Me Think About

Premium businesses aren't impressive because they never make mistakes.

They're impressive because they don't make the customer carry the mistake.

That's different.

The customer shouldn't have to call five times.

They shouldn't have to explain the story to four employees.

They shouldn't have to prove your company messed up.

They shouldn't have to become angry before somebody takes them seriously.

Make recovery easy.

That's premium service.

And I think there is an enormous business opportunity in that because so many companies are terrible at it.

Everybody is trying to improve their ads.

Improve their website.

Improve their social media.

Improve their sales script.

Sometimes I'd rather improve what happens when somebody says:

“I'm disappointed.”

Because that moment is incredibly honest.

There's no marketing anymore.

Your logo doesn't matter.

Your Instagram followers don't matter.

The beautiful office doesn't matter.

Now it's simply one human being deciding how they're going to treat another.

That's where brands are actually built.

Maybe Perfect Isn't the Goal

I've spent a large part of my career in marketing, and I've become less interested in companies trying to convince the world they're perfect.

Nobody believes that anyway.

I'm much more impressed by a company that can say:

“We got that wrong. We're going to make it right.”

Then actually does.

That's confidence.

That's leadership.

And over enough years, that's reputation.

So if you're a business owner, look at the customers you almost lost this year.

Don't just look at what went wrong.

Look at what happened afterward.

Who called?

How long did it take?

Did somebody take ownership?

Did you fix the process?

Did the customer stay?

You might discover one of the best growth opportunities in your company has nothing to do with acquiring another lead.

It might be getting incredibly good at taking care of the people you've already convinced to trust you.

That's something Palm Beach reminded me of.

Beautiful buildings and premium experiences might get people's attention.

But the real luxury in business is knowing that when something goes wrong, somebody is going to take care of you.

That's the kind of company people come back to.

Writing from Palm Beach, Florida.

— Corey Flores
Founder, Flores Marketing Firm