Recover With Your Clients Like You Mean it
I love when people are intuitive enough to recognize the opportunity to turn a bad experience into an exceptional one. The other day I went to a new dentist for the very first time called Rafia Dental. I was referred to them, so my expectations were pretty high. My appointment was at 11am and I needed to get out of there by noon so I could make my 12:30 call. I explained my situation to the receptionist and she made a note. 11:15 rolled around and I started to get antsy… just as I approached the receptionist desk to determine what the deal was, the receptionist stood up very respectfully and said, “I’m so sorry, the X-ray machine is having problems and we are running a bit behind, but I assure you we’ll have you out of here on time.”
I was annoyed and convinced I wouldn’t come back since I couldn’t rely on them to be on time. A couple minutes later I was taken back to the dentist’s chair. The dental assistant was super sweet and never made me feel like she was completely rushing. We got done and finished on time. I was very pleased! I went to check out and again the receptionist apologized for being late and then she handed me a $25 gift card for my troubles. Wow, it made my day! I’ve told everyone about it.
This experience could have gone really sour and I could be telling you all the reasons why I would never go back there, but they recovered amazingly. We are human and aren’t robots. We are going to make mistakes and people expect that. The most important part is that we are empowered to identify when there is a moment to recover and take the steps to provide over-the-top service. I tell everyone about my $25 gift card… forget that they made me a bit antsy and annoyed. It just doesn’t matter anymore.
