039: 3 Simple Rules to Win in the Digital Age of Customer Service

How can customer complaints become your greatest opportunities for success? In this episode, Marc Thomas is joined by John DiJulius to uncover the 3 simple rules that every business needs to follow to thrive in the digital age of customer service. Explore how smartphones, social media, and instant feedback have reshaped the way businesses manage trust and accountability.

Discover the service recovery paradox, where well-handled complaints transform dissatisfied customers into lifelong advocates. Learn how to foster trust between employees and customers by going the extra mile, addressing skepticism, and driving loyalty. This episode offers actionable strategies to turn customer feedback into fuel for growth and build a loyal community that stands by your brand.

John R. DiJulius III on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dijulius

The DiJulius Group
http://www.thedijuliusgroup.com

Believe in Dreams®
http://www.believeindreams.org

The Customer Service Revolution Podcast
https://thedijuliusgroup.com/the-customer-service-revolution-podcast

John R. DiJulius III on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@dijuliusgroup

Meet as Strangers Leave as Friends | John DiJulius | TEDxAkron
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfWgKZzsuMc

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📒 The Books Referenced in this Episode: 📒
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The Employee Experience Revolution: Increase Morale, Retain your Workforce, and Drive Business Growth, Hardcover | Jun 10, 2024
https://amzn.to/4cEsfNg

Secret Service: Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service Paperback
https://amzn.to/3W0sJYD

What's the Secret?: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience Hardcover
https://amzn.to/45JyLQG

The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World Hardcover
https://amzn.to/3VGT2C4

The Best Customer Service Quotes Ever Said Paperback
https://amzn.to/4bx0Pby

Chapters

• 0:07 Impacts of Digital Customer Feedback
• 14:50 Trusting Customers for Business Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

you touched a bit ago, talking about the, the, the 90s, and you know, if I had that bad experience and I had, I have this toxic eight um, and how do you feel that the digital world we live in today, right, there's so much and I'm looking for my phone at the moment and here it is. You know, instantaneously I can express myself and my experience with your salon, right, which I couldn't do in the 90s, right, how does that impact the customer experience? And knowing that, hey, if they walk out of here, they can either praise me or they can slay me. And you know, what do you do to deal with that um, especially if it's a negative experience, how you know how you can is, you know, it's one thing if somebody just doesn't come back, or maybe they tell their friends not to go there, right, but man, instantly the world knows about it yeah, I, I, you know to me and I'm not talking about the digital devices and social media I'm pinning.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Yeah, there's a lot of drawbacks with it, um, but if we keep it in just the lane. You asked, how has it affected customer service? It's the greatest thing ever Because, like you said, if you came in in the 90s and we disappointed you, treated you like crap, threw you out, were rude, how many people can you tell? Back then, right, right, many people can you tell? And you know, and back then, right, right, uh, you know, you tell your neighbors, you tell your friends. You'd eventually forget about it until someone, maybe once in a while, say, hey, I'm thinking about going to, oh, no, no, that's really bad, right, but today you have a megaphone, yeah, and you could, you know, especially, and you also have a, and not only a megaphone, but you have a.

Speaker 2: 2:02

Uh, you know the TV guys that used to carry around the big cameras. Everyone is walking around with that big news camera and you video record me telling you get the hell out of here if you don't like it, you know, and being rude, that could go viral. So it's the best thing that ever happened, because now shit companies can't hide right, your yelp scores, not one off, but your yelp scores are going to be, you know, true. If you know, if you have 50 um, you know and and what people say about you online. The average is going to be true and you can't hide. And great companies will be exposed as well, which puts us on stage constantly, because if you're calling and talking to a customer service rep, you could be recording it. It should be being recorded by the business, but it should be being recorded. We work with law enforcement, but I do believe them.

Speaker 2: 3:13

Video recording every engagement with a civilian is a great thing. I think it's good for them, because now there's not the he said, she said he called me this, he, you know, was physical with me. Now there's proof and that there's proof. There's, hopefully, you know, uh, um, checks and balances and also, uh, consideration of all. Right, maybe I'm not going to be as aggressive or whatever that may be, or the, the civilian can't lie and say he or she was. So I think it's great. I think it's great, I love it. And this goes back to the zero risk there's a service recovery.

Speaker 2: 3:58

So when you drop the ball and I don't care if you're posting or you're not posting. If you call up and say I didn't like your presentation, I didn't like your haircut, whatever business model is, we're going to overcorrect. We're going to overcorrect and that's where most businesses fail. What do you mean? Well, they make you justify it. Don't punish 98% of your customers for what you're afraid 2% are going to get away with or try to get away with. I'm okay with getting taken advantage of 2% of the time. I don't think I do. But what 98%? Can't believe how well we took care of it. You just call me up and you say, john, I was really disappointed in you know, here's what we're gonna do for you.

Speaker 2: 4:47

So so the three rules of of correcting uh, uh, when someone's upset, address it, immediately take blame and over correct address immediately take blame, so take ownership of it, yep, and then over correct.

Speaker 2: 5:07

Yeah, instead of saying, well, you know you should have, and why did you wait a week and all that stuff. Now you know there's going to be people listening and saying, well, you know, we got some people that do this. You know, every week they they buy this can and they drink three quarters of it and they say it was no good and they want a new one. Okay, that's the one percenters and you could you could, you know, have a a thing for them. But if I've been coming to you and I never complain, and today I'm like, hey, this is flat, don't you know see how much I drank? Just say, oh, I was. So here's another one. You know, I mean, handle it.

Speaker 2: 5:46

There's a service recovery paradox. That's very true. It's probably happened to you in your life, on both sides of the fence, definitely as a consumer. The service recovery paradox is if you go to do business with someone and you have these expectations and they hit them, they don't blow you away, but you come in and you make reservations for Tuesday night at 7 o'clock and you walk in and they have you down at 7 o'clock and you go, sit down and you have a nice meal and you leave. Okay, it's a nice thing, you may. You may go back, you may not, right, if you want that type of food.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Whatever the service recovery paradox is, if you go in and you come in and you're like, hi, I'm here for my seven o'clock reservation and they're like, oh, we don't have you. You're like what I called two days ago? No, I, you know, I'm sorry. Uh, hold on, let me see what we can do. You know, when they run around and the place is place is packed, and you're talking to your web, you're like, all right, what else is open right now? Where can we get in on friday night at seven o'clock and they come back and say we're so sorry. Um, um, here, here, we did find you a table. Um, it can be in the bar, is that? Okay? It's a little louder. That's fine, as long as you get it and they take care of the dinner, or they do something for you.

Speaker 2: 7:00

That's called the service recovery paradox, where you came in expecting this and they bombed. But they made it right, they overcorrected. Now you might be more loyal to them than had nothing gone wrong. So you're like, wow, I trust them. Like they didn't say you know, are you sure? You sure you have the right night, you know. You know they didn't look to see if you have. They didn't blame you, they just said we are so and for your inconvenience, we've comped a bottle of wine or we've comped this or we're going to give you dessert or whatever. And the manager came out. He apologized for the inconvenience or the miscommunication. Right, you're more impressed with them than so, like I actually like when we screw up, it's a a sick day. So I'll give you a really classic example of this.

Speaker 2: 7:51

25 years ago, when I was involved in the salons, um, I had a rule and still the rule if it gets to me, it's free, okay, okay. And and it's not hard to get to me, my cell number is all over the salon. Really, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the note says love to know about your experience. If we crushed it, please let me know so we can celebrate it. If we missed the mark, please let me know so we can make it right. And then my email and my cell. And so very few people call me, and when they do, I'm glad they did, but people don't take advantage of it.

Speaker 1: 8:33

They're not calling me at midnight, they're not, you know, but when they do, I'm glad they did. Are they calling you for the crushing it? Are they usually calling you with an issue? At what level they are Okay.

Speaker 2: 8:44

More are, and 99.9% email me. Here's my personal email Okay, but if you need to call me and so let me tell you something. Really, that's really cool psychologically about this. So I started this and just put my email no sell. And I got emails Okay, I don't know, maybe five a month, and four out of the five were hey. I really want to tell you um, how I. I went to your salon for the first time and this Sandy too, and she was couldn't have been nicer and oh my God and what I did it. And four out of five. So I got four greats and one was eh, I could have been better. So it gave me the opportunity to fix a. Let the next experience be on me.

Speaker 2: 9:29

For some reason I didn't feel I was getting enough feedback, so I wanted people to know I was serious. So the only thing I changed was I added my cell number. You will get me A couple of people just called just to see if it was really my cell. I will tell you. Here's the thing that happened I went from getting five emails a month to probably 15. No doubt, by putting my phone number I didn't get more calls. I mean, I got a few calls here and there. But it just said man, if this guy's willing to put his personal cell number, he really wants to know. And I'm going to tell him. And I got, I just got more emails, okay so, but my thing was to my staff was if it gets to me, it's free. Uh, because no one wants to call the owner, the general manager, the vice president up, you don't want to do that. Let's say, you had a bad experience last night in a restaurant and you're really upset. You don't want to call that restaurant today. And if you do, you're mad. And on top of that, if you're that mad, you know, and now you get the general manager on the phone, you almost have to embellish it because you're getting them on the phone. You're like yeah, oh, my God, you wouldn't believe it. So so I? So I told my employees that whoever calls me, I'm not going to argue with them. Whatever they want they get. If it gets to me, it's free, and whatever they get is going to come out of your quarterly bonus, the manager. So my whole point was handle it at the salon level, because when it gets escalated, people get really angry and when they have to tell their story two, three times, they start remember, oh, you know what. This happened to me last year. This isn't the first time and they're telling other people and I don't want that to happen. So here's my story.

Speaker 2: 11:19

Someone called me 25 years ago and said Mr DeJulius, I got my hair colored at your salon, at your solon salon, and they got color on my suit it's a woman suit jacket which is horrible because we're supposed to make you take off your your clothes and put a robe on for that reason. So we already screwed up. Yeah, I'm like, oh god. And so I said can we get it? Uh, can we take it to the dry cleaner, happy to pay for that? She goes. No, um, she goes. I already tried. Can't get it out, she goes and the suit is worthless without the jacket and they no longer sell the suit. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:04

So I said well, you know, can I send you a check for the suit? And she couldn't believe that. She's like well, it's 270, this is in the 90s. She was it's like 275. I said can I send you a check? And she was like you don't want to know how now, you don't want to know how old it is. I said, no, she goes, you don't want to see it. She couldn't believe it.

Speaker 2: 12:27

Hum up, looked up her thing for her address to send her a $275 check, and I sent her a half-hour massage for her inconvenience. Now there's a little marketing on that end. Okay, now what we do and we probably still do this is whenever we wanted a, a wanted to give you know, a, a, a like a, an apology. If we had a new massage therapist, a new nail technician, we'd always give you, as part of the recovery, uh, a thing. Uh, here's a manicure with, with, with. Uh, amanda, amanda has no clients, so it kind of does us a favor too. A, it impresses you that we gave it, but we're also getting Amanda instead of her sitting around all day.

Speaker 2: 13:15

There's something to do. Now we're doing nothing to do. She's doing these apology gifts, but she turned a lot of them into clients, so it's a win-win All right. So we must have had a new massage therapist at the time, because I sent her a $275 check and a half-hour massage for her inconvenience. I looked up her history she's been a client for three years. She comes in six to seven times a year. Good client, never referred anybody. So send her off this. And about a year later I was curious if we retained her and I looked her up and in the following 12 months she came in seven more times. I was like, yes, right, you know we retained her. Then I clicked on her referrals and she referred 18 new customers For $275, what advertising or market could I spend $275 and get 18 new customers?

Speaker 2: 14:22

So I tell my staff get color in everyone's clothes, but that's the point. Own it, address it immediately, own it and overcorrect. Yeah, instead of getting into a pissing match, uh, uh, you should have taken off your jacket, or? Uh, you know you don't like your haircut. Well, it's been two weeks. You know why didn't you? If you didn't like your haircut, why didn't you come in the next day? I don't give a shit. You know, give a free haircut now. If this is the third time he does this, yeah right, but I have a bigger issue there, something yeah for sure.

Speaker 2: 14:57

Zero risk. That's what, that's what being zero risk is all right, awesome, I that's.

Speaker 1: 15:02

I'm going to uh think about that one a little bit, a little bit more in future interactions, that's's for sure, right, cause I even, yeah, yeah, yeah, I could see that.

Speaker 2: 15:11

So, john, a lot of times like, like I have an employee, I have a lot of employees that they'll, because where they they previously worked, they were programmed not to trust the customer and they're protecting the business, right, yeah, and I can't blame them, because they're they are thinking the business is getting taken advantage of them. So it's really a hard habit to break. I say no, lindsay, it's okay, like I'm okay, trust them. I want you to be naive, not paranoid. Okay, you know and and and and and and. So you know, lindsay, this is the first time.

Speaker 2: 15:51

You know, uh, uh, mark's been coming here for two years. He orders books from us every time he hires new employees. If he says this time that you know he ordered 30 and he only got 20, send him another 20. Don't send him the 10, send him 20,. Right, mark doesn't have a pattern. He's been a good customer for years and this is for I send him 20. Don't send him the 10, because 10 would make it right. Send him the 20 because I want his mind to be blown right. It's an opportunity to be a hero to him. Actually, don't send him. Drive those books over if he's in Northeast Ohio. But that's the thing, versus no, john, I have a receipt here that says it was a case of books. That case of books is 30. It's okay, linz, even if you know I'm sure he's not doing it on purpose. Maybe they got lost, maybe UPS lost the debt, but he has history with us. He's never tried to take advantage of us. Be naive.

Speaker 1: 16:50

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