How to make angry customers happy

In a previous post, I shared my negative experience with ATT after they initially refused to work with my dad, who has Parkinson's. This one obviously hit close to home (I was MAD), so I blogged, tweeted and facebooked about it... as I mentioned in that post, I became "that guy."

This is a long-overdue follow-up to my original post, with how ATT made the situation right.

So, what does it take to make an angry customer happy? What does it take to make an angry customer turn into a fan? ATT succeeded in making this happen.

In this post, I'll share what ATT did to turn this situation into a positive one, what I believe they could have done to avoid it in the first place, and what we can all take from this situation.

After my dad having no luck at the ATT store, and receiving no help by calling ATT's customer service, my social media campaign began. I started by Facebooking about it. I was just venting at that point, but I was joined by many friends who had less than stellar opinions of ATT. Within a very short amount of time, a dozen of my Facebook friends had commented about how bad they thought ATT was.

I then wrote my blog post about the situation and sent it to @ATTCustomerCare.

After I sent my previous post to @ATTCustomerCare and @ATTtina, I received a direct message followed by a phone call within hours from @ATTtina, a customer service manager in Baton Rouge. She immediately identified an existing policy at ATT that provides exceptions for disabilities. She emailed me with the form, and followed up to ensure that my dad's situation was taken care of. They provided an exception for him (existing policy for disabilities), including not only activating his service on the new phone, but providing free 411 and voice dialing for him.

So, what can we take from this?

1) Ensure you have the training & communition in place to prevent misinformation in the first place.
2) Empower your front line people to find solutions and satisfy customers.
3) You will have slip-ups. Be willing to clean up the mess and work to fix it, like @ATTTina did for me

ATT, you probably could have avoided this with better broad-level training on existing policies, but at the end of the day, you made this angry customer happy. Thanks!

Stopping to thinking about the big picture. Strategic vs Tactical

About 7 years ago, I was running my own business operating ResidentAssistant.com, providing consulting services in the student housing world, and providing speaking and training services focused on student housing and student leadership.

I wanted to find ways to expand my reach, and increase my impact in the world, but had no idea how it would happen. Within a few short months, I my business in as part of Campus Advantage, one of my consulting clients.

7 insane and exciting years later, we still operate ResidentAssistant.com, we are the largest provider of student housing consulting services, and I have had the chance to reach out to thousands of people through my speaking. Through our student housing, we have served over 100,000 students. We have over 900 employees and 30,000 residents.

The reason I include that narrative in this post is that I have realized lately more than ever, that my role has been shifting from the tactical to the strategic. When it was just me working from a home office in Aurora, CO, I was a one man show. There was certainly strategic aspects to what I was doing, but my hours were filled with tactical moves. I was operating the inner workings of the machine.

7 years later, I am forcing myself to focus much more on the strategic, bigger picture. It's not easy. On a daily, almost hourly basis, I find myself asking "is this what I should be focused on?" I sometimes find myself "slipping" away from the big picture, and out of habit, I begin to get involved in details and tactical initiatives. At times, this is necessary, but the lesson I am learning is to raise a flag every time this happens, and ask myself a few questions:

1. Is this absolutely necessary for me to do? We have an amazing team of people, each of whom come armed with different talents, skills and abilities. I am not a one man operation anymore. If I am unnecessarily spending time doing something that distracts from areas I should be focused on, it detracts from the entire team... the entire company.
2. How does what I am doing now related to our Mission, Vision & Purpose? I have my primary areas of focus written on my giant whiteboard in my office. Each of these fall under our company mission, vision and purpose:
   
   PURPOSE: Our purpose is to serve and inspire our employees and residents to achieve their full potential.
   
   Mission: We are on a mission to lead the world in creating financially successful communities that excel in providing rewarding living, learning, and career experiences.
   
   Vision: We envision a world where more people are leading successful and enriched lives.
3. What have I done in the Strategic Realm today? The reality is, I have plenty of "tactical" things that must be done on a daily basis, but if I allow it to reduce the effectiveness of strategic thinking and big picture initiatives, the returns are diminished.
4. Is this on my "do not do" list? In addition to my "to do list", I have taken the advice of Mike Peter, our CEO and created my Do NOT Do list. These are areas that I know I tend to engage in that are not a part of my primary areas of focus.

Whether your role is focused on the tactical, the strategic, or a combination of both, take some time today to analyze how you are spending your time and resources. Where do you want to be? Will what you are doing RIGHT NOW get you there?