Service Recovery is one of the important concepts in marketing more specifically in Service Marketing.
Let me explain a bit more.
There is a particular situation where a customer is pissed of at the company because of failure or not living up to the standards or expectation.The company can either see that situation as a problem or as an opportunity.
If the company sees that as just a problem the chances are that they would try and come up with excuses and in the process lose the customer for ever.Not just that the disgruntled customer would go bad mouthing the company for his life.
Or they can see it as an opportunity and provide a solution which wows the customer and he becomes an evangelist for your company.
I experienced 2 situations where i was delighted and would love to share that as an example.
1. Royal Enfield - Product Company
I have a 500 CC Royal Enfield Classic Teal Green bike which is a prized possession for me.Dec 2015 we had epic rains in Chennai and many of the vehicles got submerged under water and were badly affected.Mine was no exception.A bit of background - I bought the bike in their brand store and have been using the service center only for my bike for 5 years.
I tried to fix it using a local mechanic because of the fact that all service centers were flooded with vehicles to repair and i wanted to quickly fix the bike.Turned out that the issue was in Fuel Pump which is a bit more complicated in 500 CC.Its an electronic fuel injection pump.
I called up RE service manager called Balaji finally to try and fix the bike.He responded very nicely and asked me to get the bike to the service center.Once it reached there i was told that the EFI had to be changed and with host of other minor things like oil change,filter change etc.But EFI was the most expensive one costing 15000.Problem was due to some goof up i had missed on renewing the insurance for my bike.While they had been supporting the customers through Insurance i had no way to do that.I was just hoping for a better discount on the EFI and had almost prepared myself for that eventuality.But then when i went to the service station i was in for a surprise.The bike was completely fixed and had a brand new EFI Pump on it.They charged me nothing.Not a paise.
Needless to say that "I was delighted,stumped and had become a RE Fan".
2.Nagaraj -Service
Nagraj is a young chap who is an entrepreneur. He does the job of cleaning the cars in my apartment community and charges 500 bucks per month. Besides this he also does the service of providing Drivers on Call and charges for that as well.He is very well mannered chap,polite and meticulous.As the no of cars increased he appointed 2 chaps under him to do the cleaning.
After some days I started noticing my car was not being cleaned.And then in a row more than a week my car had not been cleaned.Then it got cleaned for few days and then there would be a gap.This guy would not come to collect the monthly charge as well.
Then knowing the sincerity of the guy i ask him one day that why is that the cars do not get cleaned regularly.I told him that my neighbour also had the same complaint.He straight away apologized and said that the chaps he had under him had left the job without informing and that was the reason for the irregular cleaning of cars.He apologized and said he will set right the issue.That would continue for the next month as he could not get a replacement.But he would not come and collect the money also for the previous month.
Then after the second month is over he comes up and says "Sir.Sorry i have not been able to provide service for 2 months properly.Please give me only 500 in all for both months"To make up for that he had cleaned inside of the cars 3 times which he normally charges 100 Rupees every time separately other than 500 bucks.
He did not have a MBA and i am sure he would have never heard about Service Recovery.But he was very clear that he would treat his customers as special.
Goes to show that if someone is really serious about their customers they would definitely will see a situation like the ones above as opportunity to turn customers into their evangelist.
Let me explain a bit more.
There is a particular situation where a customer is pissed of at the company because of failure or not living up to the standards or expectation.The company can either see that situation as a problem or as an opportunity.
If the company sees that as just a problem the chances are that they would try and come up with excuses and in the process lose the customer for ever.Not just that the disgruntled customer would go bad mouthing the company for his life.
Or they can see it as an opportunity and provide a solution which wows the customer and he becomes an evangelist for your company.
I experienced 2 situations where i was delighted and would love to share that as an example.
1. Royal Enfield - Product Company
I have a 500 CC Royal Enfield Classic Teal Green bike which is a prized possession for me.Dec 2015 we had epic rains in Chennai and many of the vehicles got submerged under water and were badly affected.Mine was no exception.A bit of background - I bought the bike in their brand store and have been using the service center only for my bike for 5 years.
I tried to fix it using a local mechanic because of the fact that all service centers were flooded with vehicles to repair and i wanted to quickly fix the bike.Turned out that the issue was in Fuel Pump which is a bit more complicated in 500 CC.Its an electronic fuel injection pump.
I called up RE service manager called Balaji finally to try and fix the bike.He responded very nicely and asked me to get the bike to the service center.Once it reached there i was told that the EFI had to be changed and with host of other minor things like oil change,filter change etc.But EFI was the most expensive one costing 15000.Problem was due to some goof up i had missed on renewing the insurance for my bike.While they had been supporting the customers through Insurance i had no way to do that.I was just hoping for a better discount on the EFI and had almost prepared myself for that eventuality.But then when i went to the service station i was in for a surprise.The bike was completely fixed and had a brand new EFI Pump on it.They charged me nothing.Not a paise.
Needless to say that "I was delighted,stumped and had become a RE Fan".
2.Nagaraj -Service
Nagraj is a young chap who is an entrepreneur. He does the job of cleaning the cars in my apartment community and charges 500 bucks per month. Besides this he also does the service of providing Drivers on Call and charges for that as well.He is very well mannered chap,polite and meticulous.As the no of cars increased he appointed 2 chaps under him to do the cleaning.
After some days I started noticing my car was not being cleaned.And then in a row more than a week my car had not been cleaned.Then it got cleaned for few days and then there would be a gap.This guy would not come to collect the monthly charge as well.
Then knowing the sincerity of the guy i ask him one day that why is that the cars do not get cleaned regularly.I told him that my neighbour also had the same complaint.He straight away apologized and said that the chaps he had under him had left the job without informing and that was the reason for the irregular cleaning of cars.He apologized and said he will set right the issue.That would continue for the next month as he could not get a replacement.But he would not come and collect the money also for the previous month.
Then after the second month is over he comes up and says "Sir.Sorry i have not been able to provide service for 2 months properly.Please give me only 500 in all for both months"To make up for that he had cleaned inside of the cars 3 times which he normally charges 100 Rupees every time separately other than 500 bucks.
He did not have a MBA and i am sure he would have never heard about Service Recovery.But he was very clear that he would treat his customers as special.
Goes to show that if someone is really serious about their customers they would definitely will see a situation like the ones above as opportunity to turn customers into their evangelist.
