60 Seconds on Business
Prepare now for service recovery

By Dr. Drake Beil
President, Solutions Inc.

Have you ever had a service problem? If you're on the receiving end as the business manager, what can you do?

Because we know that anything that can go wrong will, business managers need to prepare for service recovery, which can help save customers and make friends.

Here are two quick steps to let your people help you design a service recovery process that works:

1. Idea Generation. Pick a topic of service trouble and define it from the customer's perspective. Don't worry about being too precise — anything general that gets to the problem is fine, such as "deliveries are continually late," or "Front-desk people aren't seen as effective." Then, while a (skilled) facilitator keeps the peace and limits the blaming game, generate as many ideas as you can about it with your people.

How many other ways could it be done? What other resources are needed to really make an impact?

2. Idea Patterning. Working in pairs or threes, team members should start looking through the many ideas generated. Form patterns or categories based on similarities. There will be many ways to combine the ideas and new patterns of organization can lead to breakthroughs in wrap-up discussions. A short-term plan will become evident to the group, and then you just need to follow-up.

Dr. Drake Beil can be reached at drake@60secondsonbusiness.com.