What can companies do to regain customer loyalty following a late delivery, lost order, etc.? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

It’s important to treat a customer mishap as an opportunity- an opportunity to regain that customer’s trust and to make things right again. Too often companies overlook these mishaps and valuable customers walk away without saying another word. There are a number of steps that a business can take to try to turn the situation around:

1. Reach out to the customer(s). Acknowledge that there has been an issue and that you are actively taking measures to fix the problem. Explain any factors that may have contributed to the discrepancy and thank the customer for their patience as you work to resolve the issue.

2. Offer an apology/compensation. Apologize to the consumer and explain that you realize that the whole situation must have been inconvenient/frustrating for them. Offer to make amends by refunding some portion of the sale or sending additional products to ease the inconvenience.

3. Make an offer for retention/future sales. Let the customer know how valuable their business is to your company and tell them that you’d like to give them a special discount on additional products or a future purchase. Doing so will help prevent them from defecting to a competitor.

4. Follow up again. Reach back out to the customer after a few weeks have passed to see how they are doing and if they have taken you up on your offers to remedy the situation. This is also an opportunity to collect additional feedback and to see if there is anything else that you need to do to win the customer back.

This question originally appeared on Quora.

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