Six Steps to Dealing with Customer Complaints

According to a wide-ranging report by McKinsey, customer experience leaders experience shallower troughs and quicker recoveries during recessions. So revamping the retail atmosphere has the potential to allow businesses to thrive even during a difficult time for the industry. When it comes down to it, many customers don’t even bother to complain. Research suggests that up to 80 percent of customers who leave were, in fact, “satisfied” with the original company. Businesses nowadays need to positively delight customers if they want to earn their loyalty. At some point, everyone in business has to deal with an upset customer.

• Data from QLess or other retail scheduling software options can help businesses with both hiring and training to ensure staff offer customers the best assistance possible.
• With technological advancements, customer services have come this far; hop on the bandwagon now to help your customers and advance to a new era with each update in the software system.
• Even if the complaint seems trivial to you, it clearly has some significance to them because they are taking their time to reach out to you.
• If the issue has been or can be repeated, make the necessary changes so you do not receive another complaint.

A positive customer service experience will likely encourage repeat business and strengthen customer loyalty. The common complaints retailers face, such as long wait times, poor communication, and an impersonal customer experience, can all be addressed by savvy businesses. A waitlist app like QLess is an all-in-one solution that can help businesses answer many customer concerns. However, customer complaints don’t have to be devastating for your business.

Verify the mistake, rectify it, and communicate the correction to the customer as quickly as possible. Instead of becoming a cartoon of technical support, Brummel also suggests practicing “extreme rapport” to foster a sense of collaboration toward a common goal. That means that a human touch is necessary for solving humans’ problems with their technology of choice. If you’re facing the challenges of setting up a successful hybrid workplace, here are some tips and strategies you can incorporate.

Such companies are perceived to be superior than their competitors in the industry, even if their products and services are similar in terms of quality and features. Brands today have access to multiple cutting-edge technologies and solutions that allow customer support personalization at scale. Edge computing can improve real-time data analysis, CRM creates a single record of all customer information, and automation tools make the implementation of decisions and actions faster. However, none of these technologies can help your brand establish a personal connection with customers.

Chronicling complaints and following up with customers can help you improve your operations and deliver a better CX. When one consumer struggles with an issue, customer queries it’s likely others have also experienced the same issue. Use CX software that tracks your tickets to spot patterns and make connections with customer feedback.

Learn how to meet and exceed your customer’s expectations with our Solution Satisfaction Survey Template. A poor layout can inhibit a retail store by making it harder for customers to find what they need. This decreases the likelihood of a purchase and leads to frustrated customers. This is particularly important for large stores with different sections. A neatly designed, seamless customer journey is a great way to create a more efficient operation that leads your customers from one place to the next.

In such cases, it’s important to assess the nature of the customer query and respond accordingly. There is nothing customers detest more than feeling like they are talking to a robot. (One way to document their feedback is in the contact card in your CRM. You can then export a list of complaints on a monthly basis to review and share internally). Don’t just stop at the apology, follow through with a promise to resolve the complaint. If a dissatisfied customer senses that you genuinely understand their frustration and care about their problem, then they’ll likely be more willing to work with you toward a solution.

Determine what action you’ll take to address the problem.

If this is a recurring issue, most people will simply cut the physical retailer out and choose delivery rather than curbside pickup. The reason customers do things like an in-store pickup is that they want an efficient experience without the extended waits. Businesses are trying to merge technology with physical retail with things like curbside pickup, a common solution stores implemented during the pandemic.

This also affects the ways in which support teams support their customers. All businesses provide customer service, but not all need to offer customer support. A restaurant, for example, provides customer service when you are seated, as you order your food, and upon payment. The waiter is probably not going to show you how to cut your steak, though. These systems enable customer service and support teams to contact technicians and send them to service a product when needed.

customer complaint examples (and how to respond)

We have initiated an investigation into the whereabouts of your package and will keep you updated on its status. If we are unable to locate your order, we will provide you with a full refund or a replacement item, depending on your preference. We’re thrilled to let you know that your order is currently in production and will be shipped soon. We apologize for the delay and would like to assure you that we’re doing everything we can to get your order to you as quickly as possible.

If you did not serve this customer directly or were not present when the incident occurred, you can also use this extra time to speak with your employees and investigate what happened. Another significant reason to solve these issues is that we are emerging from a global event that transformed the economy and consumer habits. In 2020, a record 12,200 retail stores closed due to the pandemic, and e-commerce eating into brick and mortar. For the stores that managed to escape the pandemic intact, becoming more reliant on technology makes a lot of sense. Businesses have grown more concerned; some may say, even obsessed with how their customers are treated.

Organizations prioritized their conveniences over customer convenience, providing only one channel for service and a specific timeframe for service hours. Also known as e-service suites, vendors design these platforms specifically for customer self-service. Proper training can be a significant cost center for companies, particularly when call center employees have a high turnover rate. According to Harvard Business Review, call center turnover can be as high as 45% and double or more than the rate in other positions in a company.

Complaints — even angry ones — can contain insights, and it’s your job to seek out the point of friction. You won’t always be able to do exactly what someone wants, but it’s very rare you’re not able to do anything at all for them. Instead of getting bogged down by what you can’t do, do your best to find what you can. Even if it’s not perfect, it shows initiative and a willingness to help.

This can be hard, especially since your business is probably a point of immense pride for you. Often, a customer complaint will highlight an area that you can improve upon within your business. Excellent customer service should always be a priority, but in the unfortunate event that you receive a customer complaint, here are ten tips on how to handle it. While it’s practical to guide customers towards self-help resources for common and straightforward issues, the way you do this matters significantly.

If you do have to follow up on a case, your service rep should make communication expectations clear. Ask the customer if the proposed frequency works for them, and if not, establish a system that works for both your rep and the customer. Your reps should be dedicated to customer needs, but customers have to give your reps space to work on the issue independently. If your reps are constantly providing updates, customers will wait longer for solutions.

If you’re unable to provide a solution on their first call, set expectations for what comes next. It’s usually a good sign when a product goes out of stock, but if it stays out of stock, customers can become impatient for its return. They may demand a special order or repeatedly call for product updates. This typically indicates a time-sensitive need for your product which should be fulfilled immediately.

As a valued customer, we would like to extend an exclusive invitation to you to be among the first to try our new product. As a thank-you for your support, we are offering a discount of X% on your next purchase with us. Simply share your referral link with your network, and they will receive a discount of Y% on their first purchase. We have a few extra recommendations you will love based on your recent order history. I wanted to take a moment to thank you for taking the time to speak with us today during the demo call.

Customer feedback is crucial as it not only improves customer experience but can also play a huge role in enhancing your product and overall business strategy. It helps improve outcomes across marketing, sales, and product development functions. Your customer support tools must meet the requirements of your support team as well as your customers. When starting out, companies usually have a single point of contact to manage customer support. As companies grow, their need for a more sophisticated support helpdesk grows as well.

Tools like Help Scout’s saved replies can help agents respond to routine requests quickly. Automation tools like workflows also help speed up responses by automatically sorting and assigning requests to the right teams and agents. Autoresponders can also be powerful tools to direct requesters to self-service tools like a knowledge base or an FAQ page to help them resolve their issue on their own. For a truly stellar customer experience, all effort should be made to completely resolve the issue during the first call.

• We all have our own personal examples of great customer support experiences – and not-so-great ones too, unfortunately.
• We also have where you can get in touch if you need us in the future.
• To ensure an issue isn’t dragged out, keep track of all customer interactions using a reliable Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
• Next, we’ll cover some best practices your service reps can use daily while interacting with customers to improve their experience.
• Automation tools are incredibly effective for boosting customer engagement.

Meeting customers’ requirements and serving them better than the competitors to encourage good word-of-mouth and loyalty was, and remains, the core of customer support. Of course, over time, the method and mechanics of delivering customer support have evolved, as have customers’ expectations of what constitutes great support. It enables your customer to converse with a live agent and get those complex issues resolved over the same channel. After receiving a customer complaint and solving the problem in order to retain that customer, an organization must use this five-step process for handling customer complaints.

Knowledge

Take full advantage of social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and Yelp) and write responses when your customers post on your page. This shows your customers that you are real people working on their behalf. For some customers, a bad experience at any point in the customer lifecycle can ruin the reputation of your brand forever. To anticipate any friction, you need to be sure customer experience skills are being demonstrated consistently throughout the journey. Pay the most attention to key touchpoints, but make sure you have a full view of the customer experience, or you risk lapses in service that can really hurt the business overall.

Little could be more aggravating for a customer than repeatedly bringing up the same issue without seeing a resolution. This could occur due to delays, changes in representatives handling the issue, or their concerns getting overlooked. Also, update the customer at each stage so they know when to expect their refund. This shows respect for their time and money, ultimately enhancing their trust in your business.

If you have had a positive experience with us, would you consider referring us to your friends and family? Word of mouth is a powerful tool, and we would love to grow our customer base through your recommendation. We appreciate your business and would appreciate your help in spreading the word about our products/services. We’d love to make sure you have everything you need, so don’t hesitate to reach out. If there’s anything we can do to help with your future endeavors, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to hear how we can continue to be a part of your success story.

For small businesses with limited manpower, building an exhaustive knowledge and resource base including FAQs, user guides, video tutorials, etc. not only saves time but also money. According to a survey conducted by Hiver, 48% of Gen Z and 35% of Millennials prefer email as a channel, making it the most-used channel for support communications. This trend is followed by phone – 30% of Gen Z and 31% of millennials prefer using the phone after email as their preferred medium of communication. Customer journey maps go a long way in helping you pinpoint the specific aspects of your product and support strategy that are sure to delight your customers, and those that may possibly disappoint them. Consumers want human interaction in their customer service interactions. Monitoring your customer service performance is highly crucial in helping you understand whether your customer service strategy is working or failing and adopting corrective measures if need be.

All staff should be trained so that customers receive a consistently delightful, not just satisfactory experience. There will be times when you may not have an instant solution for the customer. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Telling that to the customer can be slightly tricky, especially if you notice that the customer is already annoyed. But dealing with an angry customer is part of the job description, and there is really no way of escaping it.

But rather than smile and pretend to care, genuinely let them know you are thankful they are sharing with you their complaint or concern. For example, you can tell them right off the bat that you appreciate them taking the time to talk to you about their concern and you want to make sure you understand exactly what they are saying. This opens up the opportunity for you to further listen to them, while hopefully giving them the understanding that you want to actually hear what they have to say.

A good customer support agent has a thorough understanding and technical know-how of the company’s product and service portfolio. The agent also possesses excellent listening and communication skills since support interactions with customers involve high levels of patience, coherence, and concision. Delivering superior customer experiences is a great way to create this value and gain a competitive advantage against other players in the market. And great customer support and customer service are the cornerstones of a memorable customer experience. Customer complaints — they come in the form of an angry email, a scathing online review, an awkward in-person encounter, a negative tweet, or an unexpected phone call.

A customer’s complaint should always be treated as legitimate, so give their story your full attention and empathy. When you have a customer complaint, the first action that I recommend taking is to listen to the issue and focus on what your customer is experiencing. Regardless of whether the complaint is over a price increase, a bad meal, or a service outage, this person is reaching out to you to express their frustration.

Sometimes it’s simply listening to them even more, other times it means exchanging a defective item for a new one. If you really listened to what they had to say, you should be able to suggest a handful of ways to support them – or even better, one firm and perfectly ideal way to support them. You have to be the judge here on what works best here – but keep in mind that support means giving the customer something in response to their complaint. If what you offer isn’t satisfying their expectations, don’t give up… Customers feel that service is bad or not up to their mark if brands have a slow response rate. This has been a metric every contact center has been trying to improve on.

Customers can become disheartened when they can’t find a product or service they’re seeking. Whether it’s a product that’s consistently out of stock or a service that’s booked solid for weeks, this can leave customers feeling disappointed and may push them to look elsewhere. Poor customer service can include unresponsive service representatives to rude or indifferent interactions.

Agents who are more concerned with moving people through the queue rather than solving problems can lead to bigger problems. It’s smarter to take the time to understand the problem, identify next steps, and overcome them so the customer won’t have to call again. Agent burnout or disinterest will likely come through when they speak with customers. Keep a close watch on your company’s environment and culture to ensure employees are satisfied with their work and engaged. Physical encounters can occasionally put you in a difficult situation if a customer is dissatisfied and wants immediate solutions. Installation of a product on the premises, yearly maintenance, and product repairs are examples of on-site customer care services.

It’s clear that you have an opportunity to stand out against the competition by simply responding to your customers. It’s easy and – quite frankly – natural to want to tell a customer they are wrong in what they are saying. However, this won’t help you in your efforts to diffuse a customer from getting more upset while sharing a complaint. Instead of challenging their complaint, listen to what they are saying. Nothing makes a customer feel unappreciated than when their message goes unanswered. Let your customers leave on a positive note and learn how to reconnect to them back.

Is there any extra info we could help you with to help complete the purchase process? I’m happy to let you know that we have found a resolution for your recent query. Thank you for getting in touch and giving us the opportunity to help out. I just wanted to ask for your input about your experience with our product.