TURNING
BAD NEWS INTO GOOD
Handling customer complaints effectively
Most
business people do not understand how fortunate they are to have an unhappy
customer standing in front of them. Only one out of nine customers bother
to complain. The rest simply take their business elsewhere thus costing
the company
dearly in lost revenue. Unhappy customers also tell between five and
twenty others about their bad experience thereby doing serious damage
to the company’s
reputation.
Customer complaints are a gift. Handled properly they enable us to turn an
unhappy customer into a raving fan, and they provide information which can
be used to improve the way the customer does business. The trouble is, the
way most people respond to a complaining customer has the same effect as throwing
petrol onto a smouldering fire. Most of us can think of situations where, as
customers ourselves, we started out feeling moderately unhappy and ended up
feeling outraged simply because of the way we were treated.
There are seven steps to effective complaint handling: 1. Acknowledge the wrong
and apologise. This first step is the most critical and the place where most
people get it wrong. Customers complain because they feel they have been wronged,
even victimised. The first thing people seek in that situation is acknowledgment
by the guilty party that they have been wronged. First, they want to hear an
apology. Next, they want to hear that the company is prepared to put things
right.
2. Listen and empathise. You know from your own experience
that when you have been wronged you have a story to tell.
Customers want to tell their story.
They need to get it off their chest and unload the burden. It is very important
that the person hearing the complaint listens and shows empathy for the customer’s
situation. This helps to repair the relationship and, after all, the relationship
is more important than the transaction.
If steps 1 and 2 are done well, the customer’s crisis will
have ended. Now the company can begin to rebuild.
3. Take ownership. It takes a lot of effort for customers
to complain and by the time they do complain they are usually
quite stressed and are feeling powerless.
Therefore, the last thing they need is to be told the person they are complaining
to cannot fix the problem and to be passed on to someone else. What they do
need is someone to take responsibility for fixing their problems. And, they
need to hear that that person will stay on the job until the matter is resolved
to the customer’s satisfaction.
4. Fix the problem. This will come as a great surprise
to many business people but when a customer complains the
last thing they want to hear is excuses or
explanations. They are so involved with their own problems that they have absolutely
no interest in hearing about the company’s problems. They simply want their
problem fixed. The task of the person receiving the complaint is to identify
the problems the customer has and to look for ways to fix them. It is that
simple. If steps 3 and 4 are handled properly, the customer will start to see
the company in a positive light again.
5. Give them something extra. The second biggest mistake
that people make when handling a complaint is to think
that once they have solved the customer’s
problem, the matter is resolved. It is not because customers are not interested
in products and services, they want value. People will believe they have received
value when they conclude that the benefits they have received from the products
and services outweigh the costs they have paid to get them. But when things
go wrong, customers end up spending more time, effort and emotion than they
had originally planned and these are all costs in the customer’s eyes. Consequently,
if they perceived they have paid more costs but that the benefits are the same,
then they will conclude they have received less value. That is why it is necessary
to offer the customer some extra benefit. The best way to do this is to simply
ask the customer what they would like. This puts them back in control and customers
usually ask for far less than the business would have offered.
6. Follow up. One of the many weaknesses humans have is
the tendency to make assumptions. When handling dissatisfied
customers people often believe that
because they have asked someone to do something, it has been done. Thus, they
think the problem has been solved when it really has not. As a result, the
customer has been let down for a second or even third time but what is worse
is that no one finds out until the customer complains yet again. At this point
the situation is irretrievable since most customers are by now totally convinced
about the company’s incompetence. Even if things have been done as promised,
it is dangerous to assume the customer is now happy. If they are not, they
will not usually make another complaint. They will just tell the rest of the
world. It is essential that a follow up call be made to ensure the problems
have been fixed and the customer is now satisfied. If steps 5 and 6 are completed
well, the customer will be unexpectedly delighted and will be transformed from
being an unhappy complainant into a raving fan.
7. Learn from the mistake. One of the great lessons from quality management
is that 90% of all problems in business are due to weaknesses in systems and
processes. That means that if things went wrong once, they will go wrong again
unless something is done to improve the way the business operates. Effective
complaint management therefore involves establishing a process to record the
complaint so that the experience can be captured. These records should then
be reviewed by senior management regularly and frequently so they can take
the necessary action to fix problems once and for all. If step 7 is undertaken
well, the company will find itself facing fewer and fewer unhappy customers.
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