Ancient wisdom teaches us that every situation can be made into a problem or an opportunity. It is only a matter of thinking.
If we choose to be on the bright side, customer complaints, dealing with which, has, no doubt, become the routine of every customer service team, can offer some great opportunities for the company.
The benefits of effective customer complaints resolution
Research shows that 56%-70% of the customers who complain will do business with you again if you resolve their problem.
If they feel you acted on the problem quickly and satisfied their claim, up to 96% of them will do business with you again, and they are also very likely to refer other people to you.
Those incentives alone are enticing enough to put in some work into learning how to manage customer complaints.
However, there is one more important benefit that you can get by listening to customers who complain...
See your complaining customers as auditors. It's a free audit they do for you by telling where and what exactly goes wrong in your processes. It means something is set up not in the best way and you can improve it.
Learn to see negative feedback from customers simply as suggestions and you'll love it!
Having a positive attitude towards negative feedback will in its turn help you to manage customer complaints effectively.
8 Steps to resolving any customer complaint
As you listen to your customers and improve your business processes, you may get less complaints and more happy customers. It is truly so.
However, you will never be free of complaining customers totally, because customers are humans and sometimes they would complain even if they don't have any strong reasons for doing so. They just need to vent out their emotions.
It takes another human on the other side of the customer service line to understand that and show empathy.
Let's see how we can turn an unhappy and complaining customers into hap-py and satisfied ones.
- Provide customers with the opportunity to complain
- Give the customer your full and undivided attention
- Listen carefully without interrupting
- Apologize and show empathy
- Admit the problem: never argue or disagree
- Ask the question, "What else can I do to help?"
- Resolve the complain as quickly as possible
- Thank the customer for bringing the problem to your attention
In other words, be human to the customer when you see they are stressed out. Let them vent, listen, show empathy and then act, do what you can to help.
In the meantime, stay calm and don't allow yourself to be manipulated into any negative emotions. Unfortunately, some customers may complain just to get someone else triggered so they can start a fight. It can be challenging, but don't fall for that. Keep your boundaries.
The recipe for effective customer complaints resolution is simple. The tricky part always is to stick with the recipe, isn't it? All it takes is practice and patience!
