To begin, there were no shopping carts available at the front door. My colleague, Phyllis, went in search of a cart at the other entrance, in the parking lot and finally within the store, while her husband, with a bad hip, waited. She finally found a total of 6 carts in the Menswear department, but they were all full of store merchandise waiting to be put on the shelves. Being an enterprising woman, she decided to unload the store merchandise from one of the 6 carts into one of the remaining 5 carts of store merchandise.

Suddenly, a clerk appeared and said,"You can't do that! Now I have twice the work to do! You should have come to me! How can you not know how it works with carts full of stock?"

My friend, who is much less outspoken than I am, calmly suggests that the clerk should tell her manager to use containers other than the shopping carts that seem to be in such short supply. When Phyllis asks the clerk "Who is your manager?" the clerk responds "Find out yourself!" Shocked at such a response from the clerk, she says 'Pardon me?" and the clerk actually repeats, "Find out for yourself!" I just about fainted when Phyllis told me this!

And by this time, Phyllis has smoke coming out of her ears and goes on a safari to find the store manager. She locates an assistant manager who then brings the store manager in person. Perseverance seems to pay off.

When Phyllis suggests to the store manager that this clerk needs a good deal of customer service training (that's my friend!), the store manager agrees and says he'll talk to the clerk. When she identifies his employee to him, he responds, "I will take it up with her privately."

Now, things start going right………..

The store manager asks his unhappy customer if his store can have a second chance. Perfect! He offers her a gift card and when she hesitates, he ups the ante to a $50 gift card. More perfect! As he presents her with the $50 gift card, he notes that the card has a picture of roses on it and he clinches the deal by saying 'I wish I could give you real roses for giving us a second chance." Most perfect!

The rules for handling an upset customer are simple:

Apologize

Fix the mistake

Offer compensation

Thank your customer for complaining

This store manager did everything right and threw in a little charm to boot. The apology must be sincere, the fix must be immediate, the compensation must match or surpass the value of the mistake and the thanks must let the customer know how much you appreciate her taking the time to complain and giving you a second chance to keep her as your customer.

Given the fact that 95% of unhappy customers don't complain, they just go away, a complaint is a gift. This store manager knew that and he made a perfect recovery.

Like all great customer service, it's that simple.