Value restoration and compensation

Rapid access to standardized intervention repositories

Once the initial emotional fire has been contained, it is time to apply effective corrective measures that address the technical or logistical deficiency.

To prevent problem resolution from taking hours of deliberation while the customer waits in anguish, companies with high quality standards equip their employees with quick-access tools and well-structured knowledge repositories.

These information banks catalog the most frequent incidents and provide a detailed list of the exact steps to remedy them.

If the failure consists of a device that won't turn on, the agent doesn't have to invent a solution on the spot; he must quickly consult his intervention manual, which, based on the company's historical statistics, will indicate the most likely and successful course of action.

Having this arsenal of pre-approved solutions greatly speeds up response time, eliminates the risk of erroneous improvisation and gives the individual the comforting feeling of being in the hands of highly trained specialists.

Using tangible mitigators to stop immediate disruptions

Beyond the ultimate long-term solution, severe crises call for the application of immediate "sweeteners" or mitigating measures to offset the situational pain the company has caused the consumer.

Suppose a travel agency forgets to book a family's hotel room, leaving them without accommodations in a foreign country.

While the agency works hard to find new permanent housing availability (long-term solution), it must mitigate the immediate damage by funding a fancy dinner for the family or paying for a private vehicle to transport them comfortably while they wait (short-term solution).

Empowering support reps with a pre-approved budget to proactively offer small tangible benefits, compensatory gifts or additional discounts is vital.

This tactical generosity offsets the emotional effort and loss of time the customer has suffered, transforming the bad time into an anecdote of s