How to understand your customer loss so you can correct problems

We're all the same in that we all make mistakes. We all goof up, make a gaffe, slip on a banana peel, drive our car through someone's living room wall. Where we're different, though, is in our responses to those mistakes. Do we learn from them, or are we crippled by them?
As a businessperson, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to lose customers. You're going to anger people. Count on it. It's a part of life. It's like school or anything else, you can't keep everybody satisfied all the time. All you can do is to your best, and let the chips fall where they may. But you do want to learn from your mistakes. A mistake now and then is inevitable, sure, but making the same mistake over and over again isn't. When you lose a customer, you'll want to know why, so that you can avoid losing other customers for the same reason in the future. Let's think of a few ways in which this delicate maneuver can be accomplished.

1. Generally, if you anger a customer enough that he or she abandons you, they'll tell you why, and tell you loudly. A person's instinct in these situations is to say, "Cool down, psycho, I get it." This instinct should probably be suppressed in general, but when it comes to business it's got to be strangled and stamped out. Remember, no matter how angry, hurt, dissatisfied, or disappointed a customer or is, there's still a chance of regaining their loyalty. It may be a slim chance, but a chance is a chance. Much, then, depends on those first moments when a customer lets his or her frustrations be heard. Kindness and sensitivity may save the day. Then again, kindness and sensitivity may not be enough. Losing customers is a part of business. But losing a customer still doesn't have to be a total loss.
2. Whenever you lose a customer, write down in detail the reasons why. What did they tell you? What was it that set them off? When you've answered these questions, share them with your employees and management team, and keep at them until they've learned to avoid as rigidly as they can whatever it was that lost you a customer.
3. Publicly acknowledge your mistakes. Humbly acknowledge your mistakes. It's OK, when you lose a customer, to say to your other customers, "Look, we blue it with so and so. This is why we blew it. We don't want to blow it again. Please let us know where we can improve. Please let us know how we can serve you better. Your loyalty means everything to us, and we want to keep you happy." This response to losing one customer may lead to the retention of dozens of others.
4. It's also important to know when losing a customer just isn't your fault. Some people don't get along, some people are jerks, some people can never be satisfied. Be confident enough about your business that you can learn not to exhaust yourself trying to meet impossible, ridiculous demands. This lesson is as important as the others. To be able to pinpoint what is actually your problem and what is merely someone else's problem is as being to fix your actual problems. As with the other techniques for dealing with a customer loss, this one takes time, practice, and patience. It takes training for your employees and rewards for your employees when their training pays off.
5. Finally, you've got to be able to shrug off bad experiences and keep moving forward. Not that you ignore the experiences or their implications, but that you keep moving and trying, but that you don't allow one (even devastating) experience throw you off track for good. Great businesses, like great people, overcome great setbacks.

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