Every good business tries to be organized, prepared and on top of their customer pipeline. However, even with the best systems, people and processes there will inevitably be deadlines that crop up unexpectedly.
The difference between a good business and a great one is how they handle situations like these. This article will discuss exactly how to handle these unexpected surprises, holding onto your reputation, customer satisfaction and bottom line.
Why Do Deadlines Catch Businesses Out?
One of the most common reasons for businesses to miss a deadline is due to staff shortages. This can be a short-term thing due to team members taking paid leave, or a more substantial understaffing problem.
When your team is stretched, either by circumstance or understaffing it’s easy for customer deadlines to be stretched or even overlooked. It’s a common thing, but the impact can be minimized if you use a good handover template and process in place.
With a thorough and detailed handover between employees your business can ensure that customer deadlines are addressed well in advance, and not buried in amongst a scrappy list of tasks to cover.
What’s the First Thing To Do?
If you do find yourself rushed against the clock the main thing to do is put the customer first. Your business will likely lose money on this specific sale or service delivery, but that’s ok – what you need to do is put your reputation first and foremost here.
Get in touch with the customer, explain the situation and give them a dedicated point of contact who is overseeing the resolution. Let them know timescales but don’t overpromise.
Think about it, if you were expecting something to be delivered by a certain date/time and it doesn’t arrive you’re going to be pretty annoyed. However, if you see that there is a potential delay, but the company contacts you to let you know they’re putting extra resource and manpower into minimizing the delay. Well, in that situation you’re going to be pretty happy with that level of service aren’t you?
What External Help Can You Get?
For example, if you have a local customer who needs a certain shipment in order to continue the operation of their business today – get it to them today.
You might lose money on the order, but it’s not as bad as losing a customer long term. See if you can find a local courier who will do same day deliveries such as courierschicago.com in Chicago, or a similar provider in your own location.
What if You Can’t Meet it Despite All Efforts
In some cases, no matter what you do you’re just not going to be able to meet the customer deadline. This happens, nothing is perfect.
In such cases you’re going to need to compensate the customer as much as you feasibly can. A good way to do this is to give them credit with your business, to spend on future purchases or a discount promise on their next order (to keep them coming back).
If you’re an ecommerce business or local business who ships physical goods then any good shopping cart software should have the functionality for you to create a gift card or discount coupon. Use this functionality.
If you run a service business then offer to apply a discount to their next invoice. These gestures of goodwill go a long way and keep customers much happier and more likely to keep using your business and recommend it to others as well.
