The recent United Airlines fiasco clearly demonstrated how service companies can suffer immensely if they lose customer trust. Customer trust on any brand may get eroded due to three main conditions identified. First is if any particular incident is particularly appalling to create shock. This is particularly dangerous in today’s world where social media can instantly transmit negative feedback within moments. The second condition is when any incident fits a pattern of poor customer service provided over a period of time. The third is when the apology intended to recover from the shock is even worse. In order to gain back the trust, a few methods have been known to work well. As far as possible, service problems must be dealt with before they even reach the customers. A lot of companies feel obliged to follow the contract towards the customer to the letter of the law. Instead of this the firm must try to solve the perceived contract as customers often judge the service provider from a different lens. For mistakes committed, the company must be honest enough to admit to take corrective action. There will be occasions when the company will not be able to provide the ideal service, at such times, one must trying to make up by providing generous service in something else. For recovery communications, along with an apology, an explanation must be submitted. For conventional as well as digital marketing, realistic slogans must be applied, so that even at times of imminent failure, the ripple off effect may get minimized.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/04/how-service-companies-can-earn-customer-trust-and-keep-it?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29

Uploaded Date:07/07/2017