Myra's Customer Service Articles

5 Tips for Writing Persuasive Response Letters

An airline passenger found a roach in his salad. Upon arriving at his hotel that evening he immediately wrote an angry letter to the airline. By the time he returned to his office from the business trip, a reply from the airline awaited him.

The letter said "Dear Sir: Your letter caused great concern to us. We have never before received such a complaint and pledge we will do everything within our power to insure such an incident will never happen again. It might interest you to know that the employee serving you has been reprimanded and the entire plane is being fumigated. Your concern has not fallen on deaf ears."

Needless to say, the man was impressed. Then he noticed a Post It® Note inadvertently stuck to the back of his letter with this message: "Send this character the regular roach letter."

Form letters are great. They insure consistent, accurate and professional correspondence with your customers and greatly increase the efficiency of your staff. However, customers quickly recognize "canned" letters, even without a Post It® Note inadvertently attached. Customer service professionals should always tailor the form letter to the customer's specific situation.

In this article I am sharing some tips to help you personalize letters to more effectively communicate with customers after a service mishap.

• Respond quickly. The faster the response the greater your chance of regaining goodwill.

   

• Be sincere and empathic. Expressing empathy is a great way to demonstrate that you can relate to the inconvenience the customer has experienced and empathy personalizes the response: "It must have been frustrating to receive a damaged Widget. Please accept our sincere and unreserved apology. The problem you experienced is no more acceptable to us than it was to you."

   

• Apologize. Whether the problem is the fault of the customer or the company, you should offer an apology. If the fault is the customer's, you can say, "We are so sorry for the inconvenience this misunderstanding has caused you."

   

• Make a plea for their continued business. The goal of consumer affairs work is to retain complaining customers. Be sure to ask for their continued business after resolving every problem: "We are eager to regain your goodwill and hope you will give us another opportunity to serve you."

   

• Include your contact information. Customers may want to discuss the complaint with your personally so include your phone number, email address and web address.

  If you use form letters, do personalize them and make each customer feel that the problem is as important to you as it is to them. Make sure nothing about your letters sounds canned or insincere.

   

  Implement these simple, yet highly effective tips and you'll keep more of your customers.

  For even more tips on writing complaint response letters, pick up my 15 page ebooklet, How to Write Complaint Response Letters for just $5.95. When you complete this eBooklet, you will be equipped to quickly generate sincere letters that restore customer confidence in your company after any service failure. Here's what's inside:

   

• 7 Golden Rules for Writing Response Letters

   

• An awesome response letter example

   

• Specific tips for responding to email complaints

   

• 4 of the most common letter writing mistakes - and how to avoid them

   

  Pick up my Effective Letter Writing ebooklet for Less Than 6 Bucks »

   

About the Author

Myra Golden is one of the service industry's most prominent trainers and a highly regarded business growth strategist. Companies hire Myra and her team to help them build, recover, and strengthen customer relationships. She can be reached at 866-873-8419 or by email at myra@myragolden.com. She also has a website: www.myragolden.com.