Choosing Sides on the Coin of Complaint
A lesson in customer service lesson I learned the hard way
The other night my wife, Stephanie, and I got a sudden craving for burgers, so we decided to check out a new restaurant in our downtown neighborhood. In placing her order, she asked our server, Jen—sporting a brand new name tag—to hold the pickles and sauce. A few minutes later, our plates arrived, and her burger was slathered with these offending toppings. And so, a moment of truth is upon us…
Steph was bummed but took it in stride. She felt terrible sending the burger back to a new restaurant. She scraped the sauce off the bun and began picking off the pickles—until Server Jen rushed over and stopped her. Jen took the blame for not double-checking her order, insisted that they prepare a proper replacement, and said this item would be removed from our bill. Minutes later, the error was fixed, we enjoyed our meal, Jen earned a nice tip, and I was reminded of a customer service lesson I bet you’ll remember, too.
The Client that Almost Killed Me
Set the Wayback Machine to Fall 2004. I had just left my brand manager role at a giant CPG company to work with some friends at their small digital agency. My primary role was to lead our Client Service team, which meant spending quality time with our most important clients. But I had never worked in client service before, much less led a client service team!
Within my first week on the job, my CEO introduced me via email to Susan, the most senior client on our most significant single account—a healthcare business unit that represented about $1 million in revenue for us. We had staffed a team of more than ten on this account and were leading very strategic branding and positioning work. My CEO explained to Susan that I would be replacing him as the senior person on her account, and we made plans for me to visit her office in town.
A few days later, I’m in her expansive office and making small talk. I can tell right away that Susan is intelligent and driven. I’m bantering away, doing my best to act like an agency guy—modeling the behavior of people that used to call on me when I was the brand leader in Susan’s shoes. We’re smiling and laughing. “I’m doing great!” I think to myself…
Then Susan turns the conversation to a project the team I inherited was working on. I had been warned that she wasn’t happy with the latest round of revisions and sent us back to the drawing board. The conversation goes something like this:
Susan: “I assume you heard about my last feedback on the positioning copy?”
(I’m relaxed, comfortable, and pretty sure my account supervisor, Jeff, said this was progressing.)
Bob: “Yeah…I know there was a miscommunication. Jeff is working with the team, and we should have revisions soon.”
Susan: “Well, Jeff wasn’t clear with me on that…”
(I’m still relaxed. When I was in her shoes, I had great agency relationships, and this was what I was going for.)
Bob: “Oh, we’re good. I saw him meeting with the team when I left the office.”
Susan: “That doesn’t make me feel good! Jeff never gave me a timeline. That last round of work sucked, and I’m wondering if your agency can even do the level of work that I expect!”
Honestly, I blocked out the rest. I do recall that there was more yelling and lots of reassuring apologies from me. I can’t guarantee I didn’t pee myself.
Somehow I stumbled back into my car and returned to the office. The first thing I did was make sure our team REALLY was working hard on the revisions. The second thing I did was walk into my CEO’s office and warn him that we might lose our biggest client in my first week on the job. He said something like, “Welcome to agency life.”
The Coin of Complaint
I learned a lot that day and have continued to learn the Art of Customer Service many days since. A few years ago, I came across an analogy that perfectly fit the story of me, Susan, Steph, the hamburger, and many other customer service dynamics we face at work and home.
I call it the Coin of Complaint. There are two sides to this coin: “No Big Deal” and “Very Big Deal.” When a service issue happens, the Customer or the Server picks one side of the coin, and the other party gets the other.
In my client story, Susan brought up the issue, and the Coin of Complaint was tossed up for grabs. Without consciously realizing it, I grabbed the coin and picked the No Big Deal side. I was being the laid-back agency guy that I was used to working with after years of partnership.
That left Susan with the Very Big Deal side of the coin. She was working with a new guy on an important project and was very concerned that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I got the message.
With Steph’s bungled burger order, she took the No Big Deal side. She didn’t make a scene, but I bet that we wouldn’t be back at that restaurant any time soon. It took a sharp server to grab the Very Big Deal side of the coin and win her back by insisting on a fix.
Passing the Lesson On
Flash forward a few years, and I saw Ben, a young member of our client service team learn the same lesson I did. A media campaign we ran for his client was not hitting a minimum measurement of viewability. But the client didn’t tell us until mid-campaign that they had this requirement. There was no mention in our contract. The email exchange went something like this:
Client: “The view rate on our media is runningbelow our requirements.”
Ben: “You never mentioned that requirement in the P.O. We will see what we can do.”
Client: “WTF!!”
Ben chose the No Big Deal side, and the client—a huge brand worth millions of dollars to us—went ballistic.
I winced when I read this, but I also smiled, knowing that Ben would help teach the rest of the team a lesson. I wrote up a few slides on this Coin of Complaint concept—including asking my daughter to design the coin image above—and suggested how this might have gone differently…let’s try again:
Client: “The view rate on our media is runningbelow our requirements.”
Ben: (on the phone instead of email) “I apologize for not asking about your requirements earlier. Our team would like to huddle today and develop some solutions to run by you tomorrow. Is that OK?”
Client: (who now picks the No Big Deal side) “Thank you. I probably should have mentioned something, too. I’ll flex my schedule to be available to talk.”
Screw Ups are the Moment of Truth
The larger lesson here is that mistakes happen when serving clients, and the spotlight is on us when they do. Our choice of response will make or break our customer relationships and years of business ahead. A sincere apology is often the best way to take responsibility and diffuse tension—plus, it costs you nothing!
And when you manage people, remember that it’s your role to give them the freedom to fail and an opportunity to learn from the experience.
Bob Gilbreath is a 2x-exit entrepreneur and co-founder of Hearty, a curated matchmaking service that combines top software developers with early-stage, venture-backed startups.