Handling Complaints

Earn $30k to $70k as A Math Tutor Part Time

Think about any brand you admire. They probably have good customer service. Think about Apple, Amazon, or Nordstrom. If you email them, they always say, “Thank you so much for being our customer. Thank you for choosing to shop at Amazon. We are so sorry we've made this mistake. How can we help you? How can we make it right?” Even if it's not their fault, they still offer to do whatever they can to make it right.

I've had nasty emails saying, “What the heck, why am I still getting charged for this? I can't believe it.” They're mad. I don’t say, “You never cancelled your membership, idiot.” I accept responsibility for it. A great book is called Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willick, check that out. Even if they are complaining about a super minor thing, or even if it was one of my tutors that made the mistake, not me personally, I'll still say, “Wow, I really blew this. I messed up.”

Imagine you get an angry email from a parent. They thought you were going to be there for a tutoring session at a certain time and you didn’t show up. And they're really upset. You could say, “What are you talking about, we didn't have a session. Don't you remember? We cancelled after last week.” You might be right. But that’s not going to make them want to keep doing business with you. You can either be right or you can keep the customer. And I always choose to keep the customer.

If that happened to me, and a customer emailed to say, “I can't believe you missed a session.” I would say, “Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry. I totally blew it. This is my fault. I can't believe I missed that session. When can we reschedule? When can I get back out there? How can we make this right? How can I get back in and help?” That's going to defuse the negative energy and you'll be more likely to keep that customer. As opposed to saying, “No, we didn't have a session, actually. You're wrong.”

Start to pay attention to the brands you like, and the ones that make you mad. What are the brands you like doing? How do they treat you? They're probably not blaming you for anything. They're going to take ownership for the problem, even if it's really your fault. That's what good leaders do. And that's what good tutors do. And that's what good businesses do. They take ownership for those things.

Another important thing when it comes to responding to complaints, just like the initial lead, we want to be prompt. We want to get a message back to them quickly. If you're super busy, or on vacation, instead of waiting three days to get back to them, saying, “Oh, sorry, I've been totally swamped,” you can send a quick email and say, “Hey, I read this message, I'm busy over the next day, so I can't get back to you for a little bit. But I've read this, I'm so sorry, I'll get back to you.” That’s a million times better than no response at all. If someone emails you, they are upset about something. You don't want them to be getting more upset over the next two days. They're just going to be fuming about how you aren’t responding to them. Honestly, they're going to be finding a new tutor by that point. By the time you get back to them three days later it's over. You can find tutors all over the place. So they can find another tutor.

If someone is getting really mad and you can’t calm them down via email, just get on the phone, apologise, and take responsibility. In my experience that’s going to defuse the situation and help you keep a long term client.

Customer service seems simple. But I've worked with many tutors who lack that element and we've had to let them go. I had a Spanish tutor who wouldn't respond to my emails quickly. Tutoring moves fast. I would say, “Can you do this client?” and it might take two days for her to respond. By that time, it's too late. I ended up not giving her business anymore, because she was just too slow. One of the clients said, “She's really amazing at teaching Spanish. But she's not very prompt, and that makes it hard to work with her.”

Be prompt. People value that.

I've had people who are great at mathematics or chemistry, but lack customer service skills. They almost think about how to deal with the customer too rationally, like it's math or chemistry, but customer service is different. We have to think about people's emotions. If you're not good at this, there are many customer service books out there. Starting with Dale Carnegie's book is going to be great: How to Win Friends and Influence People. You could also listen to some Jim Rohn audiotapes. Learn how to connect and calm people’s emotions.