OK, now I hope that you all agree that the outstanding way to handle complaints is to lean into the customer, to get close to them.

There are five steps in LEANING IN to the customer, and I’ll take them one at a time:

1. CALL THEM
   Yes, CALL them… Not an e-mail, but an actual call. And you have to prepare for the call, for example: you might need to call factory management, or the factory, to understand best possible lead times in a recovery order. Or it might involve preparing and lining up technicians to be part of the call.
   Now of course, a competent person might first send a well phrased e-mail.
   The outstanding approach is to connect personally. This may involve letting the customer vent, or talk rather loudly, if they need to. At this point, don’t defend, explain, or try to argue – your job at this point is to understand the customer’s perspective.
2. HOW DOES THIS IMPACT THEM?
   The more we know, the better conclusions we can draw. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a good technique for asking questions… Wait, we do! Remember open questions, and SPIN? Now it’s time to put them to the test.
   A competent person would start by referring to the contract by a way of protection.
   The outstanding approach is to ask questions like:
   – How exactly is the problem being seen?
   – What do they perceive as the problem?
   – What problems is this causing to production or to the finished product? (Again, the more we know – the more we can start work on correcting it.)
   – What is the impact to the project, and how is this impacting your production needs and your relationship with your customer?
   – What is the immediate quantity you need to get things moving?

3. RECOGNIZE THEIR PERSPECTIVE
   This is about confirming your understanding of what the customer is telling you. For example, “Let me check that I got this right…”, and then go through the points to ensure that you are aligned.
   A competent person would start to explain his/her
   The outstanding approach is to make sure the customer knows that you are interested, that you understand, and that you want to help them fix this.
4. “I GOT THIS”
   This is where we show the customer that we have already started working towards a solution. For example, it may be that you’ve already contacted the factory to book or reserve material for any remakes, or that we’ve already started engaging with the technicians to work towards the solution.
   A competent person would want to start with terms and conditions, and asked the customer that they’ve got to sign documents before we can start to do anything.
   The outstanding approach is to lean in. You show that you want to take Full Responsibility, regardless of whose fault this is, or even if it is not a board fault, YOU want to help them find the best solution to their problem.
5. SOLUTIONS
   This is a big subject, so I’m going to talk about this in a little bit more detail in the next session.

Now, there are five steps that we’ve gone through. And quite incidentally, this process spells CHRIS. What an amazing coincidence! Easy to remember, isn’t it? Well, at least I think it is.