Complaints are not rare. But, when a customer calls your business with a complaint, it's not because they are trying to attack your company.
When a customer complains or offers criticism, it’s usually because they know that something could be done better.
Sure, some people complain just to complain, but that usually isn’t the case. You may not want to hear the complaints customers have for your company, but these complaints are necessary for your business’ growth. They give you insight into your customer's experience and allow you the oppurtunity to make sure that future customers don't have the same negative experience.
Since complaints generally aren’t the most enjoyable thing to listen to, we’ve assembled a quick and easy list of tips that will help you deal with these customer complaints. Be sure to share this list with all of your customer-facing employees, especially those that work with customers over the phone.
Handling Customer Complaint Calls
Customer complaint calls are fairly common, and often are more difficult to deal with than an in-person customer complaint. Why? The lack of body language. Whenever we speak over the phone, we aren't able to judge the other person's body language. This creates an additional barrier in the conversation.
Because of this, your call agents or receptionists need to be even more prepared to handle complaining customers in a professional and compassionate manner. Take a look at this post to learn more about how tone of voice can impact customer calls.
How To Handle Customer Complaints
These three tips are all you will need to know while you’re handling a difficult conversation with a customer.
1. Stay Calm
It can be easy to get defensive when someone is pointing out a mistake, but in order to fully learn from our mistakes and make sure they don’t happen again then you need to listen. A complaint or critique are not meant to attack you or your abilities to do your job, and it's important to remember that.
2. Listen
One of the simplest desires of most customers is the desire to be heard. We all want to be feel like we’re being heard in our daily life, and that includes during customer service experiences.
Make sure you’re really listening to someone and not just nodding along while you think of something else. If you’re someone who has trouble with their listening skills, focus on their words and try to find something interesting in each sentence. Find a way to care, because if you care, it will be apparent to the customer or caller.
3. Find A Solution
If you are able to and can find an immediate solution, that will leave a great impression upon your customer. They may even come back, and isn't that the ultimate goal?
With these tips, hopefully you'll know what to do in the future the next time you get a complaining customer.
