Companies of all sizes frequently fail to handle customer complaints appropriately. In the digital era, where complaints can be seen by hundreds, thousands or go viral to millions, it is essential that customer complaints, especially serious ones or ones backed by considerable emotion, are treated seriously and dealt with in a timely manner.
If you are failing to provide good customer service, this should be corrected. After all, offering decent customer service is neither costly nor overly complicated. At its core, good customer service can be reduced down to listening to the customer, letting the customer know that his or her complaint has been acknowledged and cataloged, and then working to remedy the situation if possible.
A good positive attitude and staying calm when dealing with irritated or dissatisfied customers can go a long way towards keeping a customer happy and halting them from expressing their feelings in an online public forum. Let’s look at five tips for dealing with customer complaints in an effective manner.
Tip #1 – Take a Proactive Stance
A good attitude and a proactive stance can go a very long way towards diffusing an unhappy or angry customer. A disappointed customer wants to know that he or she is being heard and that steps are being taken to remedy their situation. Clearly communicating that you are working to fix the situation and doing so in a positive manner will diffuse most negative customer scenarios.
Tip #2 – Take Quick Action to Fix the Problem
Once a customer is calm and is feeling a little better about your company, there is still more work to do. When you state that a problem will be addressed, it is essential that the problem is indeed addressed. This is vitally important for the reputation of your company. A failure to follow up on a promise to fix a situation could actually backfire and leave customers feeling as though they were initially manipulated.
Tip #3 – Always Stay Calm
If a customer is unhappy enough to write an email or post a negative review online, then they are obviously displeased. However, if a customer is angry enough to pick up the phone and call, you can be fairly certain that the customer in question is rather upset. This anger may boil over on the phone call. That’s why customer service people need to be ready to deal with that anger in a calm and collected fashion. Customer service team members or salespeople should never match the anger of a customer. Instead, they should focus on demonstrating that they are committed to fixing the problem. It may benefit you to invest in employee training so that employees are ready to deal with angry or disappointed customers when the time arrives.
Tip #4 – Look for Customer Dissatisfaction Problem Patterns
If the same complaints and issues come up again and again, then it is very likely that there is a larger problem that must be addressed. Numerous customer complaints from different customers shouldn’t be treated as a “headache.” Instead, it should be viewed as a great opportunity to improve your goods and/or services. Once you have detected a negative customer service pattern, be sure that you and your team move quickly to remedy the problem. Your business will be stronger for doing so in the long run.
Tip #5 – Track Your Success
It is important to never assume that you have successfully addressed customer service issues until customers have, in fact, verified that the situation is resolved. For this reason, it is wise to follow up with customers and ask for feedback via either questionnaires in the mail, email follow ups, or even phone calls.
Customer complaints that are not appropriately addressed can fester and become larger problems. The time, effort, and money you invest in boosting the quality of your customer service team will yield significant positive results for the long-term.