Recovering from a Service Failure

Service recovery- ever heard that term? It's common in the for-profit sector and emerging in the nonprofit sector, particularly in the health and human services arena. The term refers to addressing a failure in customer service (and rapid recovery from the problem in the eyes of the customer.) The goal is quick response and problem resolution as to maintain customer confidence and goodwill.

I had a service recovery moment this week when a NorthSky webinar went very wrong. The technology failed during our first session of the Fall series including the phones, the computer, and the Internet connection. And it occurred during a session that was well attended with an excellent speaker. Bad, bad timing...

So what do you do? Well, hopefully you do, what I did: everything to make it right including a re-broadcast of the session and a tuition credit. Your service recovery solution will be different than mine but the basic success factors remain the same: sincere regret, quick response, strong communication, and ultimately, a solution to the problem.

The tricky part of service recovery rests in the reality that it's your front line staff and volunteers that need to be prepared to respond. Time delays can be deadly, resulting in a disgruntled constituent communicating their dissatisfaction throughout your service area. Successful service recovering relies on the empowerment of your staff and volunteers. Are you ready to give up some control?

Service failures are inevitable as hard as you work to avoid them. Your nonprofit's success relies on being poised to respond. Have you prepared yourself and your team? Have you developed guidelines and conducted contingency training? Literature abounds on service recovery. You'll find an excellent article at www.greatbrook.com/service_recovery.htm

Any thoughts to share?