Simply put, the backbone of a company is its customers. The lifespan of your business depends on how you value and communicate with your audience, so you can’t afford to turn off a customer with poor interpersonal skills. To prevent this from happening, it’s important to stay on top of responding to customer complaints, as well as understanding what it is that may be causing them annoyance.
Customer complaints can be stressful, time-consuming and simply irritating, but how you respond to these issues will help your business’ reputation greatly.
Below are 6 tips on how to effectively respond to customer complaints.
1. Don’t Get Too Crazy With Over-Automation
Adopting automation technology may be tempting because it frees up time, but it is not always the best answer for customer interaction. Each customer prefers different modes of communication such as phone numbers, live chats and emails so that they can reach out to you. When it comes to a customer having an issue, there are many who prefer the experience of talking to a live person instead of an automated robot that may not be equipped to handle varying degrees of issues.
2. Take Your Time With Each Customer
Get rid of the idea of having a “script” when customers call. Moreso, don’t assume that you know what your customers want when they call, and thus try to rush to give them a solution to get them off the phone. This type of service can irritate your customer and cause them to feel as if you aren’t listening to them. To avoid losing or aggravating your consumer, invest in “Effective Listening skills” courses for your customer service team, or have weekly meetings about how to improve their skills in this area. The goal is to make sure that your team is taking the time to listen to the customer, understand their specific problem, and offer a solution.
3. Have A Reliable Web Service Provider
If your website is constantly crashing or glitching, especially during a time where your business is offering an exclusive sale for a certain amount of hours, it can be a point of contention for your customers.
Although no online system is perfect, to be on the safe side, look for a reputable web service provider that offers fast page loading time and a reliable, round-the-clock uptime.
4. Never Leave Your Customers Hanging
With the assistance of technology, Everyone wants to have things as quickly as possible. For a business, having a fast turnaround time is a must in order to stay successful. Having a speedy response draws new customers to your business, leading to you gaining long-term customers. Whether it’s on Instagram or your website, respond promptly to your customers’ questions and feedback.
5. Value Your Customer Service Team
Your customer representatives are the first line of communication that your customers receive. They are the face of your business and the ones who interact with your consumers the most.
As the business owner, it is your job to make sure that your customer service team not only has top notch skills, but also are rewarded for their efforts and treated well within the company. Find ways to motivate them to go the extra mile to satisfy your customers. Have weekly team building exercises, have rewards in place when goals are met, pay them well and check in on their mental health. By taking care of your employees, you will also attract top talent to your organization if you build a reputation treating your employees well. Happy employees lead to happy customers.
6. Incorporate Changes From Customer Feedback
Let’s say that multiple customers have called in with a complaint about not receiving a shipping confirmation from your site and your customer service team has said that they will look into fixing these issues in the future. Well, now it’s time to follow through with your word. After all, if you complained about a mishap and were promised a change that doesn’t actually happen, wouldn’t you be a bit peeved? In this case, it would be wise to get with your IT team to make sure of any bugs with your online systems and if they are, get them fixed at once.
It is on you and your team is on you to listen carefully, draw connections between complaints, and determine which course of action is needed to correct the issue.