By now, most of us have been inundated with issues around incomplete, inaccurate and incompetent performance. These issues bedevil us at work, at home and in all forms of commerce.

Exhaustion, anxiety and anger have consequently risen. That makes it more important than ever to prioritize problem-solving in customer interactions.

Conventional wisdom would dictate that doing the job right, thereby eliminating problems, is the best solution. However, effective, efficient, and satisfactory (or even exemplary) problem-solving rates a close second. There’s even a school of thought that advocates intentionally creating issues that must be solved as a great way to build customer loyalty and longevity.

Years ago, I read an article about a hotel that did just that – so they could ride to the rescue and delight their customers. Of course, that was long before the pandemic and all the catastrophes emanating from it. Now, we all have plenty of problems – so artificially creating new ones to show customers performance in the trenches is likely not a good idea.

However, solving problems in a way that will enhance a customer relationship is critical. Because of all the emotional and economic damage stemming from Covid, people are craving caring, competent assistance – partly because it’s become much more difficult to get it. Even with well-intentioned customer service reps, overwhelmed companies and stupid policies often hamstring their ability to do anything meaningful.

That said, there are problem-solving steps that can be taken expeditiously to help the situation. In the case of product manufacturers, it can start with the label. Both in content and function, anything referencing problem-solving on the label that instills customer service confidence can go a long way to reassure people.

The label itself can invite consumers to reach out if there’s an issue. Verbiage can be along the lines of, “Got a problem? We want to know it so we can fix it now!” While this invites more interactions that can burden the customer service system, encouraging people to communicate in and of itself builds customer relationships.

For more sophisticated situations, the label can contain a QR code or Augmented Reality link with a one-word reference: “Problems?” Consumers can click the code or link to be directed to resources designed to help problem-solve quickly, efficiently, and without a lot of extraneous muss and fuss. Of course, this requires a back-end system set up to handle problem-solving requests rapidly and reliably. Otherwise, you end up with a customer who’s doubly angry: First, there was a problem; then, there was a failure to handle it appropriately.

Other steps that product manufacturers can take to problem-solve are:

1. Empower customer-facing employees to over-deliver. Offer the complainant something of value over and above what is requested whenever possible. If equipped with sophisticated CRM, the employee can check customer history and come up with something both personalized and meaningful. For example, if a customer has been around a long time and hasn’t complained about every little thing that comes along, offer a credit toward future purchases – and solve the immediate problem with empathy, sensitivity and caring.
2. Pay attention. If someone communicates three questions via email, text or chat, answer all questions fully! How often these days do multiple questions get addressed on the first pass? Way too infrequently. While it’s time-consuming and potentially problematic for already-overwhelmed customer facing folks, it’s vitally important for customers to feel heard and acknowledged. Neglecting to answer all their questions smacks of inattention, or worse, not caring.
3. Offer sincere help, not canned apologies. Somewhere, a customer service “guru” seemingly told every customer service rep to read a script that apologizes at the outset of an interaction – as though that would solve the problem. These and other platitudes can smack of insincere, canned comments that can cause more harm than good. Instead of a canned apology, a rep can say something real, such as: “If I were you, I’d have been upset, too. I’m really sorry this happened. My job is to fix it. Let’s get started and see what we can do.” Of course, as with other problem-solving measures, saying this (or anything) only works if it’s done in a sincere, heartfelt manner.
4. Offer the experience as a teaching tool. Again, only if sincere, telling a customer that this problem-solving experience will be shared for team training tells the customer that they’re valued and respected. It also conveys the desire for continuous improvement. And, it offers hope to the customer that there won’t be a repeat of the same problem down the road. All of this helps build loyalty, longevity and trust.