< Previous30 SEPTEMBER 2018HIGH PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYsponse. When you do it right you’ll not only have a customer for life, you’ll get enough referrals through that one simple action to pay for it 10 times over.How do you go about turning a customer ser-vice nightmare into a public relations dream? Here are four simple steps:1. Take all complaints seriously, and have someone other than the person who caused the problem or received the initial complaint han-dle the follow-up. If you have two CSRs, let them handle each other’s complaint calls. If you have only one, assign the follow-up to someone else in the company. If you’re small, that's likely you – not necessarily a bad thing.2. Listen carefully to the complaint, let the customer talk it out, empathize with them, but don't necessarily agree yet – you don’t have enough information.3. Respond sincerely. Once you've heard them out, if their complaint is legitimate, let them know that you will take care it. Say just enough to diffuse the situation and leave the customer feeling good about the interaction.4. Blow them away. Now comes the good stuff. Once the customer is off the phone, and you’ve had time to think your response through, it’s time to do something far above and beyond their expectations. Besides fixing the problem, do something ex-tra without looking for credit or recognition. Maybe send them a gift basket or a gift card. It’s actually better to send a gift not related to your services. If you decide to do this, make sure the gift is real – with no strings attached.The bottom line is you can take a bad situa-tion and make it a great one that knocks cus-tomers' socks off in a way that they wouldn’t think of going anywhere else. You have the unique opportunity to prove you are a truly great company – and then some, and win a cus-tomer for life! A s I started planning this article, two very recent bad customer service experiences came to mind. One involved a car leasing company that made turning in a perfectly main-tained car hell on earth. Then there was the landscaping company that promised a "one-day" makeover (at a pret-ty hefty price), but took nearly four days to do a bad job. Their equipment was so poorly main-tained, I had to get out my tools and fix their bed edger so the project wouldn’t take five days or more. Within two days my very expensive "made-over" beds were completely covered in weeds (apparently they forgot to spray before mulch-ing). I’m still waiting on the callback on that one – which was promised over two weeks ago.What do these experiences have in common? The worst customer service happened after the work was completed. Things like calls not returned, promises made unkept, and unsat-isfactory interactions left me with an increas-ingly bad taste in my mouth. It seems custom-er service is all but dead today. But it doesn't have to be.HOW DO YOU TURN IT AROUND?Every HVAC contracting business owner or manager reading this has, at one point or anoth-er, likely been guilty of these sins. But let’s talk about the positive aspects of callbacks and poor-ly delivered service. What? Positive aspects? Absolutely! Every callback and customer complaint can be a huge opportunity. In a world of really bad customer service, you can truly shine by taking advantage of a mistake, sloppy or poorly executed work – virtually any-thing requiring you to “fix” a customer.The truth is, it’s not hard to do. The secret is catching it in time, making a big deal about it, and blowing your customer away with your re-Dominick Guarino is publisher of HVAC Today magazine and CEO of National Comfort Institute, Inc. He can be reached at domg@ncihvac.com ONE MORE THING...By Dominick GuarinoCustomer Service Doesn't Have To Be DeadNext >