Customer service isn’t always rainbows and sunshine. Sometimes a service failure occurs and you find yourself dealing with an upset customer. Like the old adage, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It is the ability to turn a negative into a positive. Service recovery is taking the lemons and whipping up a delicious lemon meringue pie: taking something negative and not just making it a positive, but making it so positive that just the sight of it makes people smile – and want more. Lemon meringue pie is meant to be shared, and the resident is so satisfied and impressed that they tell everyone about how well they were treated and how happy they are to be living in a place that really cares. They have become a loyal resident, sharing there happiness on social media and dishing up slices of pie to friends, family, and coworkers. That’s service recovery.

Mark Vanderhoof is co-presenting "Maintenance Day: Customer Service Recovery Paradox" at the 2015 NAA Education Conference & Exposition.  You can register for the conference here, and add Mark's session to your schedule on Friday, June 26th at 2:15pm.