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Free Website Content
Listen to Your Customers
Customer Complaints
By Sharon Housley
Mastering the art of managing customer
complaints can seem like a thankless job, but keep in
mind that for every customer that shares their worries,
concerns or complaints, there are likely more that did
not express their dissatisfaction, and instead simply
moved on to a competitor. Customer complaints can, and
should be treated as opportunities.
Customers that are willing to communicate
can help provide information on how your product or
service is being used in a specific market segment.
Complaints give you the opportunity to see how your
company is falling short of customer expectations.
No company is perfect. As Dr. Phil often
says, "We cannot fix that which we do not acknowledge."
Acknowledging an area in need of improvement will get
you that much closer to perfection. Customers who complain
are indicating where you need improvement; seize the
opportunity to improve. Adjust the systems that are
deficient. Mistakes happen, learn from them and prevent
the same errors or problems from recurring.
Communication is critical to resolving
customer complaints. First off, listen to their problem,
and empathize this will hopefully help diffuse their
anger. Also be sure to remind them you are on their
side, and you understand their frustration.
Communicate a plan to address their problem,
and provide a timetable for resolution. Unfortunately,
not all problems can be immediately rectified, providing
a time table will help manage the customer's expectations.
Once the problem is resolved, communicate the resolution,
thank the customer for bringing the issue to your attention.
Resolving customer complaints builds customer
loyalty. Everything was not perfect, and yet you made
efforts to correct the issues that customer brought
to your attention. It is possible to turn customer complaints
into assets. Customers that feel you responded will
often become an advocate for your business.
Track consumer complaints and watch for
any patterns. After a complaint is resolved, conduct
a post-mortem, take a close look at the procedures and
systems, implement changes to prevent a similar issue
from recurring. Perhaps redundancy is required.
Of course, there is no need to wait for
a complaint to improve processes. Look at systems or
procedures where items might slip through the cracks.
Is there an area that results in customer confusion?
Business processes should be constantly evolving; take
a close look at any critical systems and consider how
you can implement changes to prevent any mishaps or
problems from occurring.
When complaints appear in a product or
company forum, your initial reaction might be to delete
the post altogether, but a public complaint that is
dealt with in a professional and timely manner is very
telling. This will give other users confidence that
if there is an issue they can expect a reasonable resolution.
Many companies that understand the value
of customer feedback solicit comments from customers,
often offering incentives for polite, honest feedback.
If you wish to be proactive send follow up emails to
all customers who have queried your company. This is
quality assurance and a great way to solicit customer
feedback.
Few people enjoy dealing with customer
complaints. The trick is to use the feedback in a constructive
way and turn criticism into compliments.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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copy of the issue or a link to any online posting would
be greatly appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
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