Conduct personal reviews of negative feedback every so often to do the following:. But by preparing ahead of time, maintaining appropriate positivity ratios, and framing feedback as temporary, specific, and external, you can arm yourself with ways to handle the negativity so you can address customer complaints efficiently and use them to create loyal customers.
Greg is a writer, marketing strategist and alum of Help Scout. Connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Being able to assess and address customer complaints efficiently is key to making this happen.
What are customer complaints, really? A 5-step process for handling customer complaints To uncover the reason you received a complaint from a customer and solve the problem in order to retain that customer, use this five-step process for handling customer complaints.
Ask your customer questions like: What do you mean by…? Could you provide an example? Could you expand on that point further?
And ask yourself questions like: What other information do I need? What am I assuming here? As the customer vents and sees you are not reacting, he or she will begin to calm down.
The customer needs to get into a calm frame of mind before he or she can hear your solution—or anything you say, for that matter. Acknowledge the problem. Let the customer know you hear what he or she is saying.
If you or your company made a mistake, admit it. I can see how that must be frustrating for you. Get the facts. After listening, take the initiative in the conversation.
Now that the customer has calmed down and feels you have heard his or her side, begin asking questions. Be careful not to speak scripted replies, but use this as an opportunity to start a genuine conversation, building a trusting relationship with your customer. To help you understand the situation, get as many details as possible.
Offer a solution. It's easy and - quite frankly - natural to want to tell a customer they are wrong in what they are saying. However, this won't help you in your efforts to diffuse a customer from getting more upset while sharing a complaint. Instead of challenging their complaint, listen to what they are saying. And - dare I say - even thank them. Here me out The old saying "kill them with kindness" could not be more true in a situation with a customer complaining.
But rather than smile and pretend to care, genuinely let them know you are thankful they are sharing with you their complaint or concern. For example, you can tell them right off the bat that you appreciate them taking the time to talk to you about their concern and you want to make sure you understand exactly what they are saying.
This opens up the opportunity for you to further listen to them, while hopefully giving them the understanding that you want to actually hear what they have to say. Listening to your customer complain may not be your ideal scenario, but try your best to really hear what they are saying. Are they upset that something took too long? Or possibly a product they purchased isn't what they had in mind? Maybe - but hopefully not - they are upset about a specific employee they encountered while working with your business.
Whatever the "real reason" it is they are complaining, acknowledge it and ensure you heard what they said. Support comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Sometimes it's simply listening to them even more, other times it means exchanging a defective item for a new one.
Post Contents. It might be extremely difficult to do, you must stay calm when handling a customer complaint. This can be hard, especially since your business is probably a point of immense pride for you. Often, a customer complaint will highlight an area that you can improve upon within your business. Not only that, but getting upset, losing your cool, or yelling at a customer is never a good thing. Frequently, if a customer comes to you with a problem, it means that they want to be heard.
Even if the complaint seems trivial to you, it clearly has some significance to them because they are taking their time to reach out to you.
Active listening techniques can, and should, be used with your customers all the time. When frustrated, people can have difficulty expressing their concerns or what they need from you to make them happy. Allowing your customer to talk will give him or her time to calm down.
Often, you can resolve an issue just by listening to your customers and allowing them to vent. In most instances, you can diffuse anger and frustration by remaining kind and understanding. You can tell your customer straight away that you appreciate them reaching out about their concerns and that you want to understand exactly how they are feeling.
A statement such as this from the get-go lets your customer know that you truly care and that you are ready to listen. When a customer knows that you truly care, you are well on your way to finding a reasonable resolution to the customer complaint.
Paraphrasing what your customer has said and repeating it back to them lets them know that you listened and that you understand what the problem is. Acknowledging the problem does not mean that you agree with what the customer has to say, it just means that you understand them and respect where they are coming from. As with acknowledgment, apologizing does not mean that you agree with the customer, nor are you taking the blame.
It demonstrates that you understand where they are coming from and that you are ready to resolve the problem for them. Now is the time that you can calmly start asking questions for clarification. Start a genuine conversation with your customer. However, it is imperative that you do not ask questions that your customer has already answered.
The faster you find a reasonable solution that everyone can agree on, the happier your customer will be and you get to breathe a sigh of relief.
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