Succesfully Handling Customer Complaints

At some time or another all businesses will receive customer complaints. As a supplier, this can be stressful and emotionally draining...if you aren't prepared!

As you read on, you will discover:

• Why complaints are GOOD!

• How to avoid gaining a bad reputation through "Word of Mouth"

• The secrets of how to succesfully handle customer issues

What is a complaint?

“An expression of dissatisfaction whether justified or not” – BS8600

In the UK, customers are more willing to express their dissatisfaction.

As a nation known for its reserved nature, British consumers have become more passionate and are more willing to argue and stand up for their rights. Yet most businesses would naturally prefer to avoid dealing with upset customers.

The good news is that if dissatisfaction is handled well, it can have a huge, positive, impact on the relationship with the customer and the organisation’s ongoing success.

“What makes excellent service “excellent” and poor service “poor” is very much about how organisations deal with problems and customer dissatisfaction”
- Professor Bob Johnson of Warwick Business School

Spreading the Word!

The fact is that’s what most of us would do - and how businesses can quickly get a bad reputation!

Fortuantely, the converse is also true. If someone has had a good experience with their dissatisfaction being resolved efficiently, the evidence shows that they will also tell their friends.

Don’t assume that you do not have a problem if you are not hearing any client discontent. A good proportion of people won’t bother. So hidden damage could be happening to your business reputation, TODAY...RIGHT NOW!

It’s also true that most people will PAY MORE for excellent service.

So it’s remarkable that not many companies seem to be listening and reacting to this key customer service point. Start now and you will give yourself a true competitive advantage!

A Self Help Checklist

• Do you view a client issue as a gift or an annoyance to your company?

• Does your organisation treat negative client feedback seriously?

• As a customer, how would you complain?

• Do you have a customer service strategy and in what way is it effective?

• How do you measure whether your customer service is effective?

• If asked, would your customers and staff say that you are serious about customer service?

• Do you train your staff on how to deal with negative client feedback?

Small Organisations

Whilst smaller organisations will not find it easy to resource a formal customer service department they can more easily bring it into their whole business culture. They can achieve the position where everyone believes the “Client is King”.

They will probably have far closer contact with their clients. This means that they are in a much better position to listen to what they have to say and can react more quickly to ensure satisfied clients.

Are you Ready?

1. Accept the Gift
   Make it your policy to be clear, flexible, welcoming and about complaints. Believe that you are indeed fortunate that a customer is prepared to give up valuable time to help you improve your organisation.

2. Train your staff
   Give them the skills and confidence to tackle the difficult customers. Excellent complaint handling isn’t easy and can sometimes be stressful and feel unrewarding – so show that support them.

3. Prioritise & Authorise!
   Staff should be aware that complaints are a top priority item for your operation, and ANYONE who deals with them must have sufficient authority to resolve them completely.

4. "Quality deals with that”
   If you employ Quality Assurance or Control people, it’s so easy to develop a culture where it becomes their problem to deal with complaints. So long as this persists, complaints will continue.

   To stop this, everyone must own “Quality” and whilst your specialist may co-ordinate efforts, it’s up to everyone to put things right.

5. Capture the complaint
   You’re likely to receive a complaint in one of 4 ways:
   • in person
   • by telephone
   • by mail
   • by email/internet

   Your organisation must be able to handle all of these efficiently, measure and act upon them.

6. Anything to Declare?
   It’s vitally important that you measure the number and type of complaints received. Set up a process to log and analyse all complaints and share with everyone.

   You will gain considerable value from being able to proactively improve internal processes, training and your product and services.

TOP TIPS for Successfully Responding to a Complaint

1. Always say “Thank You”
   Change mindsets and view negative feedback as a gift from your customers.

   This attitude must be lead from the top. It’s so easy to see internal politics result in disagreements, place people on the defensive and reduce your client responsiveness.

2. Offer an Apology
   This is NOT an admission of guilt on your part, it’s just good manners. It’s also an acceptance that at this moment in time your client isn’t happy and you need to quickly change that view.

3. Wear your clients shoes
   Try to put yourself in your client’s position. You will show more empathy and will see the issues more clearly. You know your business better than them and so can hopefully see the solution quicker.

4. It’s not a Rip Off
   Accept that the complaint is made with good intent.

   It is true that there are some professional complainers out there, but they are in the minority. Accepting that the customer may well have a point, even internally, may well trigger off ideas for an acceptable resolution.

   By taking this approach, trust will develop over time and your clients will accept the evidence more willingly when they are wrong about the basis of the negative feedback.

5. Gather the FACTS
   Emotions may be highly charged and opinion can start to cloud judgement. So let the customer give you all of the information. This will help you fully understand the situation AND if they are emotional, will give them time to calm down.

6. Don’t leap straight to the “free gift route”
   It’s very tempting to give the customer a gift, or vouchers, and in many cases, done properly, it is good service. However, too often it is done INSTEAD of solving the problem. This can lead to more complaints about the same thing because it hasn’t been fixed, and also to the “training “of more professional complainers.

7. Fix it! If you plaster over the issues the problem will occur again. This time you run a high risk of losing the customer! It’s also important that you and the customer are in final agreement - make sure that your definition of the right fix is the same.

8. Install a Feedback Loop.
   Do something to fix the process e.g.;
   • Communicate internally

   • Train staff in the issue

   • Eliminate the fault

   • Audit the solution to make sure it stay fixed

   Wherever possible let the complaining customer know that they have helped you resolve a problem – they’ll feel great and come back again and again (and will probably tell their friends!).

9. Invest time in Continuous Improvement
   The best way to resolve problems is to avoid them in the first place.

   This can be done by taking time to critically review what you do. And whilst this may seem a large expense, it needn’t be. A constructive group discussion over a cup of tea, with ideas captured and acted upon can be a simple, cost effective way to start.

   Remember, it probably costs at least 5 times as much to gain a new customer than keep an existing one. Keeping this complaining customer should be the top priority, and at these cost ratios you can afford to be generous in your time and effort.

10. ALWAYS respond
    People who complain in person hopefully always get dealt with, but make sure that EVERYONE who gives negative feedback on the telephone, by letter, or by E-mail gets a rapid and appropriate response.

11. Listen to your staff
    They nearly always care about your company and doing a good job and are much closer to the customers than you are. Ask their views regularly and make changes when they are sensible. Make sure THEIR complaints are handled too.

12. Lead by example
    It’s not that your staff DON’T listen to what you say, it’s that they DO listen, so make sure that you are always setting the right example, and giving complaints your personal priority. Reward good complaints handling.

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