Disgruntled customers are a fact of business. You can't make everyone happy all of the time. Whether the problem is completely your fault or some unpredictable force of nature, customers will complain.
How you respond to such complaints has a huge impact on your business ?from customer satisfaction and repeat business to profits and growth.
When it comes to customer complaints, there are two areas that need to be addressed. Fixing the problem and ensuring that similar problems don't occur in the future.
When customers approach you to complain, the first thing you should do is give them your undivided attention. You don't want to anger them more by seeming disinterested. Also, don't try to explain, defend, justify or interrupt in any way until they have finished venting. When they're done, apologize. You're not taking the blame necessarily, you're just apologizing for the bad experience they had. After that, ask them what you can do to make it right and then do it. Finally, it's always a good idea to thank them for bringing the problem to your attention. That way you show that you value their feedback and are likely to act on it.
Because customer service representatives are usually the ones who deal directly with customers, there is often a disconnect between the people with the problems and the people who have the authority to make the changes needed to address the problem on a larger scale. For example, let?s say that a customer buys a hammer from a local hardware store. The first time the customer uses it, the handle snaps. When the customer returns the broken hammer, the customer service representative listens to the problem, apologizes for the inconvenience and refunds the money. Everyone walks away content with the manner in which the isolated problem was remedied, but that's as far as it goes. If management brushes the issue off as a minor annoyance or if the customer service representative fails to inform management of the issue altogether, then the problem could easily occur again. Customers often want to know not only that their problem has been resolved, but how the failure occurred and what the company is doing to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Instead of only going halfway, customer service representatives need to assure customers that the company will look further into the problem and then inform management. Management should then take the initiative to actually look into it. The broken handle on the hammer could just be an isolated incident, but it could also be the result of a defective product. Falling short when it comes to dealing with customer complaints can be seen as negligence, and customers don't appreciate it. Go the extra mile and deal with complaints the right way.
