Receiving customer complaints can be disheartening and frustrating for business owners and managers. Mistakes do happen, and that’s a part of doing business. What shouldn’t be happening is not focusing on resolving those complaints. The more you wait, the higher chances for customers to churn will be.

However, businesses must understand that they should see customer complaints as a source of learning and an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships, and their overall customer experience.

Handling customer complaints must be done in the right way though, and guess what? That’s just what this article is all about! 

#5 Handle Customer Complaints By Showing Empathy

Humans act and react based on emotions, whether they are negative or positive. If you notice that your customer is frustrated, the last thing you should do is offer a lack of empathy.

From the very beginning of the conversation, make clear that you understand their frustrations. Let them vent.  The second thing is to let them know that you’re there to help.

Last but not least, you have to offer them the best possible solution within the shortest time. The whole point is to make the customer perceive you as an ally, not as an enemy. After all, they aren’t angry at you although they may act like that since you’re the one behind the call.

Once you ensure that these 3 steps are achieved, you’ll find out that this way of handling customer complaints is very effective. In addition, your solution will be clear because by now, you have all the necessary information regarding the issue.

This strategy is proven to work in the market, and Starbucks uses it. It is called “The LATTE Method“. The acronym stands for “Listen”, “Acknowledge”, “Take action, Thank”, and “Encourage the return”.

What’s the opportunity here?

You just solved customer complaints correctly and prevented them from churning. At the same time, you encouraged them to stay loyal to you.

#4 Stop Giving Excuses

Nobody bats an eye when you start giving excuses., and your customers prefer not to hear about your excuses. They care about the solution. What most businesses do is that they start overwhelming their customers with lame excuses.

What happened – happened, however, things remain unsolved, right? You got to do something to work out that is in the interest of both parties. Hence, your business should start being responsible and act in that way.

Once you start taking full responsibility your customers will start praising you a lot more. Plus, they will recognize that you care about them and this builds confidence.

Just think of it for a moment, let’s assume you’re the customer. You call the brand and you start complaining about a certain product or service with which you’re dissatisfied. On the other side of the phone, the customer representative starts giving you excuses. Well, it wasn’t entirely our fault, that happened because… well, but…

At the end of the day, you’re the one that does all the hiring, producing, and selling. It is your fault. Let your ego go away and start providing solutions.

What’s the opportunity here?

From now on, your customer feels that you’re keen on helping them rather than not accepting your mistakes. The opportunity is a chance to keep your business relationship with them strong.

#3  Use Feedback To Improve

Even if you’ve provided the best possible solution to your customer’s complaint, the job isn’t still done. Did you ask for feedback on whether your customer is satisfied with your solution? No? Better do.

It is essential not to see the complaint as a complaint. Instead, you should see it as an opportunity to learn. Since not every complaint is the same and many patterns are different, you should start scanning.

Look for customer reactions, monitor their traits, and what they do when they are angry. Why are they angry? Why your product/service didn’t make their life easier?

Start writing down each feedback you receive, and watch the magic happens. Once done, you will have a crystal-clear sight of areas that you should improve. This is exactly what you need so that the next time, you can be more prepared.

Additionally, we recommend you implement different kinds of feedback features on your site or business operations. This can be done through e-mail, surveys, focus groups, digital channels, user testing, and more!

Options are indeed numerous.

What’s the opportunity here?

The opportunity here is to have a better, throughout service that’s based on real scenarios instead of the “ideal buyer persona”.

#2 Follow up As Soon As Possible

Did you manage to resolve customer complaints quickly and effectively? Great! The next step is to follow up with the customer and ask them whether they are happy with your service.

Most businesses fail to understand that business relationships aren’t one-sided. Once customers use or purchase your service/product that’s not the end.

Following up with your customers after a complaint or purchase shows that you value their opinion and feedback.  If you don’t follow up, well, we have bad news for you.

A study by Harvard Business Review found that 56% of customers complain about poor follow-up. On the other hand, the other 48% of customers that experience a poor follow-up will go on to tell at least 10 people or more about their bad experience.

This means that your brand’s reputation will surely be damaged, and you don’t want that. You want strong business relationships and a perception by your customers that’s not negative. Right?

What’s the opportunity here?

You just showed that you care about your customers with actions, not just words. Congratulations on strengthening your business relationships with them.

#1 Be Available and Offer Instant Solutions

Nobody wants to wait in these dynamic times. In general, people are organized in different schedules according to their private and professional life. So, why would they want to wait for you to respond?

It is easier for them to just stop engaging with your brand, given the fact that there are thousands of brands out there like you.

Therefore, you need to be available for them and minimize the waiting times almost completely. For that reason, we recommend you implement omnichannel support and be available on multiple channels at once.

Additionally, you should do two things of which the first is to start training your customer representatives to maximize their efficiency. The second thing is to utilize chatbots, social channels, live chat support, and more. To aid the support process even more, you can assign self-service options as well.

Such things will 100% save time for your agents during peak hours and nobody will be left unserved. There’s yet another thing that is worth mentioning, and that’s the personalized experience. Try to offer the best-personalized experience because the benefits you receive in return are remarkable!

What’s the opportunity here?

Being available on channels that are widely used by your customers is a sign of a strong company. A company that is willing to be in touch in every place in which their customers exist. Customer complaints will figuratively be lesser or nonexistent.

After all, how would they complain about your availability?

Conclusion

Customer complaints should be your source of learning and not a source of frustration. Remember that, because the sooner you understand this point the better your results will be.

We hope that these 5 tips helped you have a better picture and understanding of handling customer complaints, so that, in the future, your customer service can be a lot better.