Do You Actively Communicate with Customers During Times of Disruption?

In my Daily Dose video series, I explore the topics that chief customer officers must grapple with on a daily basis. Join me as I discuss what I’ve learned over the course of my 35-year career, so that you can more effectively do the work that needs to be done.

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the video below.

When customers need you, are you there? Are you actively communicating when the unexpected happens and the power goes out? Planes are canceled, appointments are rescheduled or shipments are late.

Do you proactively reach out when service is disrupted? Do you get to customers before the tweets and the calls for help begin? We are human. And in our companies, disruptions will occur. Customers get that.

What customers need in these moments is the confidence that you remember they’re out there. Make-mom-proud companies let customers know that they are watching out for them and these moments. They want customers to feel that they are working to get their life back to normal, back on track.

Be Proactive and Plan for Customer Recovery

Customers don’t want to be forgotten and of course, companies don’t set out to forget customers when they’ve disrupted their lives. But planning for disruptions and customer recovery is not always built-in as an everyday discipline of the operating strategy of companies.

Deliver peace of mind. The make mom proud companies huddle hourly, daily and nightly to know before customers tell them what is happening in their lives. And then they call, they post, they chat and they tweet with their customers preferred form of communication.

They stay in touch and keep customers out of the dark. They give them peace of mind that they are working on their behalf. Delivering that peace of mind is not only the right thing to do it actually boomerangs back to you in customer karma. 77% of global consumers think more favorably of a company when they receive proactive information, alerts, and notifications from it.

77% of global consumers think more favorably of a company when they receive proactive information, alerts, and notifications from it. #customerexperience #CX Share on X

Keep Customers Out of the Dark

In situations when websites crash, packages aren’t delivered, deadlines are missed, or service suddenly stops, the make-mom-proud companies stand out. They stand out because they’ve built a customer recovery system to know these occurrences, recognize when they are happening, and then jump into action and start communicating with customers.

Make-mom-proud companies stand out because they've built a customer recovery system to know their disruptions, recognize when they're happening, then jump into action and start communicating with customers. Share on X

This is what creates advocates in this moment. They earned the right to their customers’ story and to their rave in the marketplace. Do you take disruptions in customers’ lives personally? Is your company poised to unite, huddle, communicate, and act? Do you make sure customers know that you know they require your help and that you’re on it?

These actions are what create fans when customers are stressed, when they’re annoyed, and even afraid. In fact, research reveals that if you put the customer in a hole and then dig them out, you may have an even more devoted customer than if you hadn’t done that in the first place, especially if you do it well. But that’s not a test that I would conduct.