Why Do Your Customers Complain and What Can You Do About It

Published on April 18, 2012 by admin No comments

As the Internet becomes an increasing part of our lives there are a growing number of web sites which are run for dissatisfied customers to publicly air their complaints about bad service. See your name posted on these sites or get contacted by them and you know you have a problem!

How can you prevent your business from becoming ‘feature of the week’? Of all the skills small business owners need these days, the one least practiced is the ability to step back and look at your business from the customer’s perspective.

Having an effective complaint handling process is important but that is the equivalent of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted – it’s too late, your customer has already suffered.

It’s more effective to know what your customers could potentially complaint about and put it right before it happens.

So what are the common reasons for customer complaints? Mark Bradley of Customer Service Network (www.customernet.com), which facilitates in benchmarking, improving processes and implementing improvements to help reduce customer complaints, says, “Financial loss is the obvious reason but the rest can be split into operational and emotional reasons.”

In this article we will look at some of the operational and emotional or human issues within your business which could give your customers cause to complain. Take a look at these and examine each part of your business. How do you stand up?

“You didn’t do what you promised.”

When did you last review your advertising material or web site? Do they contain service promises which sounded great at the time but have since been forgotten? For example, do you promise to deliver within 24 hours but changes in processes have meant that is no longer possible? No one may have complained yet but sooner or later someone will.

“Your product didn’t do what it’s supposed to do.”

When did you last undertake a quality check of your product? Random checks can help weed out poor quality workmanship before a customer spots it. When buying your stock or finished item do you test it?

“You’re never open when I need you.”

9 to 5, 5 days a week may have been acceptable when you first started out, but is this still what the customer wants? Check with your customers – they may want you to open later and close later.

“It’s a long time before someone answers the phone.”

Hanging on the phone while it rings and rings is very irritating. It conjures up images of staff sitting drinking coffee and chatting; not the impression you want to portray and not the way to put customers in a buying mood! Do your staff understand the importance of the phone being answered promptly?

“Whenever I ring in and get transferred to another person I often get cut off.”

Have your staff been trained in getting the best out of your phone system? Do all staff have a handy list of extension numbers to avoid annoying ‘sorry wrong department’ answers? Ask a friend or business colleague to ring in and take note of what happens – good and bad.

Mark Bradley says, “We usually encounter a number of interesting correlations that fundamentally prove that operational accuracy leads to customer satisfaction.”

Take some time to look at your business from the customer’s perspective and you should be able to stop customer complaints before they hit your desk.

It’s not only the operational side of the business which can let you down; the human side of business can also generate complaints – your staff! No matter how good your product is one loose cannon in your team can upset everything. What actions can your staff take that can lead to a customer picking up the phone or putting pen to paper?

Bad Attitude

There’s no getting away from it – some people have a bad hair day every day! The way they speak to people is enough to turn the most mild mannered of customers against your company. They act as if the customer is an interference to their daily routine. A person with poor job skills can be taught the relevant knowledge or skills but a person with a generally bad attitude, the proverbial chip on the shoulder, is harder to bring into line.

These type of people are the ones who never acknowledge your presence when you are standing in front of them, or still chat away on the phone The solution? Get them away from your customers.

Not Willing To Seek a Solution

These people are the ones who may acknowledge a customer’s problem but just can’t be bothered to find a solution; it’s too much hassle. The stock answer is, “I can’t help. It’s company policy.” Their favourite words are “I can’t”, “Yes, but”, “won’t”, “shouldn’t”. They can find nothing positive to help the customer. If this happens, your customers walk away thinking you are a ‘can’t do’ instead of a ‘can do’ business.

Not Giving Full Product Explanations

Your product may be the best in the world, but if it doesn’t do what the customer wants then you have one unhappy purchaser. Lack of understanding of how the product or service meets the customer’s requirements could be down to your sales staff being too anxious for a sale – persuading the buyer that the product is just right when it clearly doesn’t fit what the client needs. This is partly down to sales training but also attitude. Do you want staff that are happy to sell to your customers on this basis?

Not Willing To Admit a Mistake

Isn’t it refreshing to hear someone say, “Do you know, you’re right. We really messed this up.” If you get this as an opening line when making a complaint, you immediately know you’re in business. However, sometimes getting a business to admit it has made a mistake is like pulling teeth. If you’re in the wrong, get your staff to own up and say, “Yes, we were wrong”, it can take away the emotion which sometimes blocks successful resolution of complaints.

Not Keeping You Up To Date

In any effective complaint handling process, everything can be done according to the book, but it can all be thrown away if the client is not kept up to date. A complaint, followed by days of silence, allows doubt and anger to bubble up again. It may be that the person handling the complaint had a bad time when taking the initial query; he’s not motivated to pick up the phone and engage in another torrent of abuse! However, not speaking to the client can only make matters worse, and so guaranteeing that the next call will be even more interesting! Get ‘strong’ characters to front your complaints, people who are not intimidated and are happy to solve problems.

Broken Promises

This is probably the most frequent reason for human cause of complaint; ‘Yes, I’ll do that for you. Leave it to me.” What happens? Nothing! The impression given is that your staff just don’t care, or that the customer is not important. Impress upon your staff the importance of following through on their promises. Any broken promise will compound a complaint.

So, in what areas are your staff letting you down? Are you doing everything to ensure your staff are treating everyone as loyal customers? Listen to what your staff are saying, and listen to what your customers are telling you. Get the human side of your complaint process right and you have more chance of keeping your customers for life.

The art of complaint handling is not only resolving it to the customer’s satisfaction; it’s also about taking action on what you find out and being proactive in finding potential problems before they become problems.

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If I m Not Satisfied What Do I Want

Published on April 16, 2012 by admin No comments

Customer service is all about the customer. As business owners or employees, we have all at one time or another had to deal with an upset customer. What happens when the upset customer is us?

Being in business does not guarantee success. The last thing a business owner wants is to lose our business, so when something goes wrong and we are the customer, do we just accept it and walk away forever or do we seek satisfaction. Of course we often complain, but then again we probably would not remain a customer.

Here is a suggestion to be a satisfied customer more often. Know what you want that will make you happy before you complain. Here is an example.

Last week I bought a pie at a national grocery chain. It was on sale and when I went to eat it, it was the worst thing I ever tasted. I looked for my receipt to return it and noticed that the pie which was supposed to be $2.50 was charged to me for $4.79.

On the way to the store I decided that I would ask for a total refund and a new pie. When I went to the customer service desk, I told the guy working there what I expected for my trouble. He said wait a minute and went into the back office. When he came out he told me to go get a new pie.

As I was looking at the pies, I had a choice of another fruit pie ( the first was blueberry) or pumpkin or a key lime. The key lime was $3.00 more than the original pie, but I have eaten them before from that store and they are always good. I took the key lime pie back to the service desk, explained that I know that the key lime pies are good and the person asked if I would like a bag. He then handed me the cash refund and I left the store.

I will shop at that store again.

My point to this is that when we are the customer, we can most often get satisfaction in a bad situation by knowing what it is that we want that will make us want to come back. When we know what we want we simply have to ask for it. This gives the business person an opportunity to save the relationship and us a way to get what we need to be happy.

For the customer, it is not always easy for them to figure out what it is that would make them happy or satisfied. As the business owner it is a good idea to have suggestions ready and employees empowered to handle the situation.

As I have said before, all we need to know is what we want and how to ask for it. Remember it is a lot more costly to get new clients than it is to give them what they need to feel satisfied, at least in most cases.

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Top 6 Ways To Get An Angry Customer To Back Down

Published on April 14, 2012 by admin No comments

1. Apologize. An apology makes the angry customer feel heard and understood. It diffuses and anger and allows you to begin to re-establish trust. Not only that, but pilot studies have found that the mere act of apologizing has reduced lawsuits, settlement, and defense costs. You need to apologize to customers regardless of fault. Certainly, the apology needs to be carefully worded. Here’s an example of a sincere, yet careful apology: “Please accept my sincere and unreserved apology for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

2. Kill Them Softly With Diplomacy. This simple phrase has never failed me: “Clearly, we’ve upset you and I want you to know that getting to the bottom of this is just as important to me as it is to you.” When you say this, anger begins to dissipate. You’ve addressed the anger directly and non defensively and you haven’t been pulled into the drama of the attack.

3. Go into Computer Mode. To use Computer Mode you take on the formalities of a computer. You speak generally, without emotion, and you don’t take the bait your angry or difficult customer is throwing you. Your words, tone, and attitude are completely impersonal and neutral – (Think of the automated response system you speak to when you call your wireless phone company or bank.)

This “computer mode” response deflects, diffuses, and disarms angry customers because you don’t add fuel to the fire by giving your difficult customer what they want -an emotional reaction. When you don’t take the bait, the difficult customer is forced to stop dead in their tracks. And that means you regain control (and confidence).

The Computer Mode Approach In Action

Let’s say your customer says:

“You don’t give a d*** about customers. Once you get a customer locked into a contract, the service aspect is over.”

While it may be tempting to fuel the fire with an equally hostile response such as “What’s your problem, creep?” don’t take the bait. If you do take the bait, the situation will only escalate and nothing productive or positive will result. A computer mode response might look like this:

“I’m sure there are some people who think we don’t care about servicing customers.”

“People get irritated when they don’t immediately get the help they need.”

“It’s very annoying to experience a delay in service response.”

“Nothing is more distressing than feeling like you’re being passed around when all you want is help.”

And then you stop -like a locked up computer.

No matter how uncomfortable the verbal abuse is or how ridiculous it becomes, continue to respond without emotion. This tactic works because it is neutral, doesn’t take the bait, and because it is unexpected. The difficult customer wants to throw you off, make you lose control, and to get you to respond emotionally. When you fail to do each of these things, you actually regain control.

Go into “computer mode” the next time you’re faced with verbal abuse from an irate or unreasonable customer, and I promise you, you’ll quickly regain control —and you’ll have fun with the process.

4. Give this question a shot: “Have I done something personally to upset you?… I’d like to be a part of the solution.” Of course, you know you haven’t done anything to upset the customer. You ask this question to force the angry customer to think about his behavior. Often, the mere asking of this question is enough to get the ballistic customer to begin to shift from the right brain to the left brain, where he can begin to listen and rationalize.

5. Show empathy - Empathy can be a powerful tool used to disarm an angry customer and show that you genuinely care about the inconvenience the customer has experienced. Expressing empathy is also good for YOU, as it helps you truly begin to see the problem from the customer’s perspective/and this perspective will help keep you from losing your cool when your customer gets hot. By letting customers know that you understand why they are upset, you build a bridge of rapport between you and them.

Here are some phrases that express empathy: • “That must have been very frustrating for you.” • “I realize the wait you encountered was an inconvenience.” • “If I were in your shoes, I’m sure I’d feel just as you do.” • “It must have been very frustrating for you have waited five days for your order and for that I am sorry.”

6. And finally, here’s a tip that works like magic. …. Show appreciation for the difficult person’s feedback. After your difficult customer has ranted and raved, you can regain control of the conversation by interjecting—not interrupting, but interjecting to thank them for taking the time to give you feedback. You can say something like:

 Thanks for being so honest.  Thanks for taking the time to let us know how you feel.  We appreciate customers who let us know when things aren’t right.  Thanks for caring so much.

The reason this tip works so effectively is because the last thing your irate or unreasonable customer expects is for you to respond with kindness and gratitude. It’s a shock factor and many times you’ll find that your customer is stunned silent and this is exactly what you want. When the customer is stunned into silence, you get in the driver’s seat and steer the conversation in the direction you want it to go.

When you do these things you’ll find that being on the receiving end of verbal abuse doesn’t have to be threatening or intimidating. You can come across as confident, composed and strong…and most importantly, you’ll regain control of the conversation.

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