Dealing with customers’ complaint

One of the essential pillars of customer service and customer retention is handling customers complain. Understanding why customers complain, and addressing concerns before they happen saves time, and reduces the incidence of angry customers. The way customer complaints are handled can make all the difference in maintaining customer relationships.

According to customer service consultant Peggy Morrow:

When a customer’s complaint is handled appropriately they actually increase their purchase of your service or product. Handling complaints in an appropriate manner helps to foster customer loyalty and positive word of mouth. When customer complaints are not handled appropriately, you will lose customers and create negative publicity.

Some reasons of customers’ complaint:

- Not doing your promise
- Your product didn’t do what it’s supposed to do.
- You’re never open when they need you.
- Not answering e-mails promptly.
- Bad Attitude
- Not Willing To Seek a Solution
- Not giving full product explanations
- Not willing to admit a mistake
- Not keeping you up to date
- Broken Promises
- Low quality products

Steps in dealing with customer complaints effectively are:

- Listen to what your customer thinks is wrong

Your goal is to first understand them. Listen to what they say, without trying to form your response. Once you’ve heard them, rephrase and ask if that is what they are saying.

- Acknowledge and understand the problem

Resist the temptation to argue with the client. Instead ask questions to get to the bottom of the situation. What is the client really upset about? Show the client that you really understand the situation from the client’s perspective.

- Work on the solution

Explain to the customer what you are doing to make it right. Don’t make up excuses for a mistake that your business has made. Customers don’t care about how it happened. Customers only care about what you are going to do to fix it. If you show that you are willing to fix a problem, you are more likely to satisfy them and continue doing business with them.

- Providing a solution

You must provide the customers the solution of their complaints. Be sure that if you promise to resolve it, you should be able to keep your word.

- Following up with the customer afterwards

Reassure the individual that you take their concern very seriously and that you appreciate them coming to you to address it.

The art of complaint handling is not only resolving it to the customer’s satisfaction; it’s also about taking action on what you find out and being proactive in finding potential problems before they become problems. Blogshops that don’t bother about satisfying their customers usually get more customer complaints.

With reference to: Customerservicezone, eHow