One of our customers reported an issue with the .Net software in our open forum and threatened to switch to another platform. How would you handle this issue?

I would ask follow up questions to clear the air before answering this Microsoft behavioral question:

1. what is the open forum?

2. have other users also face this issue  kind of open forum

3. how many clients/customers can access or view?

4. how many users are facing the same issue

5. if the user leaves the platform what is the loss?

6. is it a new customer or a loyal customer

7. is our product a MVP or a stable one?

 

Action plan:

1. Ack the customer within SLA - few hours

2. Get in touch with customers offline

3. Get product/Engineering/Operations support

    a. is there a workaround?

    b. how can we fix this? how long will it take?

    c. will it be fixed as part of any other feature launches?

    d. Classify the issue - feature / data / workflow / infrastructure/ enhancement

    e. Gather all info from customer and also note what the customer expects

    f. Brainstorm the issue and get it feature enhanced/developed.

    g. Enhance the product with features  - more than what is expected

    h. Get Root Casue Analysis done to prevent the issue from occurrence in future

4. make sure to win the customer's confidence again.

     a. communicate and be in touch with the customer.

     b. Reach out even before the customer reaches out to us.

     c. Incentivize the customer either thro a refund or a 1month/year free subscription.

5. Make sure the customer ack in the public forum that it is fixe

I would follow up a four step process leveraging Bijan's playbook on resolving conflicts:

1) Empathize with the user- Offer apologies and set up a meeting or a forum to undertstand what is the problem, when did it occur, what impact did it have and pains that customer is facing

2)  Offer alternatives- Trade off, different approach,  brainstorm, options etc.

3) Offer to make it better- A full/partial refund on the services purchased or a discount on some other service

4) Communicate the findings and outcome to other users so that it shows proactiveness on behalf of Microsoft