15 Tips on How to Handle Customer Complaints
Customer complaints must be addressed, not only to help the individual with the complaint, but to protect your company’s reputation and, if on a public channel, show other customers and potential customers that you care. Don’t just address the complaint, handle it well by taking a thoughtful approach.
Acknowledge that you received the complaint
Even if you can’t solve it right away, no one likes to be left in the dark after taking the time to voice their concern. Set up an auto-response that confirms you’ve received the complaint and communicate a timeframe for how quickly the customer should expect to hear back from you.
Respond as quickly as possible
Customers today expect fast responses: One study by Toister Solutions found that customers expect an email response within just one hour. Others have shown that 41% of customers expect an email response within six hours. But those are statistics for a response to an average inquiry. Complaints are more urgent than other types of inquiries like feature requests or positive feedback. As compared to other types of inquiries, you have an even smaller window of time to resolve complaints before the customer writes you off or goes to a competitor.
Listen carefully
When resolving complaints, it’s important to use active listening skills. Pay attention and listen, without interruptions, to ensure you fully understand the details and what’s at stake. Then, sum up and repeat the problem back to the customer to confirm your understanding.
Thank your customer
Most customers don’t voice their complaints or give you the opportunity to make things right. A complaining customer is giving you a golden opportunity to fix things, win them back, and improve things for others. Thank them for taking the time and effort to let them know they’re appreciated. Plus, by showing your gratitude, you validate them, helping them feel like a valued partner in finding a solution. It’s much easier to come to a solution with a customer who sees you as a partner than one who sees you as an enemy who has wronged them.
Apologize
Express understanding and sympathy for the customer’s experience, and acknowledge the mistakes your business makes. Sometimes, it may be unclear as to whether or not a mistake was made, and you don’t always have to apologize as if you’ve done something wrong, but you can almost always apologize for the fact that the customer has had a negative experience.
By apologizing to your customer, you’re expressing that you understand and sympathize with the emotional component of the experience they’ve had, helping them to feel heard and cared for. And by admitting to your mistakes, you demonstrate integrity and honesty, which inspires and builds mutual trust.
Provide a solution
As important as apologies are, the customer ultimately wants a resolution to their complaint. Be solution-oriented and find a way to fix the problem. Sometimes, customers will ask for solutions that you can’t provide due to practical limitations in your product or resources. In those cases, try to provide an alternate solution, so the customer isn’t walking away completely empty-handed. You can also keep some funds or gifts on hand to offer as a reconciliation when you’ve run out of options.
Make sure your support team is empowered
A big part of being flexible is ensuring that your customer support team is empowered. Training, an up-to-date internal knowledge base, and autonomy to make decisions are key to equipping your team to handle the majority of complaints without escalating to management and requiring unnecessary transfers.
Transfer smoothly
Transfers should be avoided when possible, but occasionally they do need to be made, such as when help is required from a specific group or employee with highly specialized knowledge. When this happens, be sure to make the transfer as seamless as possible. Explain to the customer that you’ll be transferring them, and why, then hand over as much information as possible to your teammate so the customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves.
Keep the customer in the loop
Some solutions will require some time and additional steps. When that happens, keep your customer in the loop, providing them with updates each step of the way. Tell the customer what you’re doing and why. Keep treating them as a partner in the process and, where possible, ask for permission to take steps toward resolution. For example, ask them if it’s all right for you to reship their order or log into their account to investigate a bug.
Confirm understanding
When offering a solution, ensure the customer has heard you by asking them if they understand. Avoid harsh phrases like “Do you understand?”, which might be perceived as demeaning or aggressive. Instead, ask them something like “Do you have any other questions about this or is there anything else I can do to help?”
Assure the customer that you’re working to improve
Always provide assurance that your business will take steps to prevent future mistakes. One way to do that is by tracking and categorizing complaints as described above and using that information to make important changes in your business. If possible, state-specific measures you’ll be taking and let the customer know that them bringing their issue to your attention helped you identify the opportunity.
Stay calm
Throughout the process, remain calm and don’t act defensively. Remember that customer complaints aren’t personal and that you’re there to help. Be extra careful when it comes to tone to avoid sounding dismissive or accusatory. And when customers are angry, look past it to find the opportunity and insight. Don’t tolerate abusive behavior from customers, but on the other hand, don’t dismiss a complaint simply because the customer isn’t presenting it in the best tone.
Keep records
Be sure to store the customer complaint somewhere, like a help desk software. This way if the customer complains again in the future, you’ll have the full history and context of their relationship with your company.
Follow up
When all is said and done, hopefully, your customer will have gotten what they needed from their conversation with you. Make sure that’s the case by following up 24-48 hours later to ask about their support experience. If you fix the problem they had, for example, a specific bug, even if it’s weeks later, follow up to let them know and thank them again for helping to contribute to the fix.
Learn and move forward
The process of handling a customer complaint is a learning experience, not only on the broad scale of how to improve your business but on the individual level for you as a professional. Every time you handle a customer complaint is an opportunity to refine your skills and serve the next customer better. If things don’t go 100% smoothly or if the customer still ends up unhappy after you’ve done everything you can to help, review the interaction and identify what you can improve for next time.