Deal With Customer Complaints

Having happy customers is the key to a successful business. But there may be times when customers complain about some aspect of your business. By addressing complaints and following up, you can keep your customer happy and minimize the risk of losing others through bad press or word-of-mouth.

Steps

Addressing the Complaint

1. Take a deep breath and put your emotions aside. When someone is complaining about your business, it can feel like an attack. But you need to remain as calm and emotion-free as possible to help successfully deal with the complaint. Before you meet or speak with the customer, take a deep breath to help you calm down and put your emotions to the side.
   • Let your calm demeanor guide the customer as much as possible. A person may be less likely to erupt if you are calm.
   • Avoid keeping the customer from waiting too long, which may upset her more. Taking one or two deep breaths to start out should be enough to help you calm down.
2. Introduce yourself. When you meet the customer or she picks up the phone from your call, be sure to introduce yourself in a friendly manner. This can help reassure the customer that an actual person is there to listen to her complaint.
   • Keep your introduction simple. For example, “Hello Ms. Maier, I’m Chris the owner of Bobbleworks and I understand you had a bad experience that you’d like to talk to me about.”
   • Maintain a friendly and caring tone, which can reassure the customer and shows that you genuinely want to deal with her complaint.
3. Listen to your customer’s entire complaint. Since your customer called to make a complaint, address the problem after you introduce yourself. Listen to her until she finishes to show that you are taking the complaint sincerely and seriously.
   • Allow your customer to explain herself completely without interrupting her.
4. Apologize and sympathize. Once you’ve listened to your customer’s entire complaint, it’s your turn to directly address her. Apologize and sympathize with her to show that you understand how she’s feeling.
   • Apologize for the experience before you say anything else. For example, you can say “Mrs. Maier, I apologize that you had this experience.”
   • Put yourself in her shoes an sympathize with her. For example, tell her “Mrs. Maier, I understand that this upset yet and I’m going to do my best to help you.”
5. Restate the complaint and ask questions. Make sure that you have correctly understood the customer’s complaint so that you can effectively address it. Restate her complaint and ask questions to help you better understand the situation.
   • Restate your understanding of the situation by paraphrasing what the customer told you, which can also reassure her that you’ve paid attention and are taking her seriously. Say, “May I please ask you a few questions so that I can understand the situation even better?”
   • Ask any questions that you have about her complaint or what happened. Make sure that you don’t challenge her and maintain a caring and concerned manner.
   • Write any notes to help remind yourself of what happened according to the customer.
6. Thank and reassure your customer. Make sure to thank your customer for her thoughts and answering your questions. Offer her reassurance that you’re going to address the complaint in a timely manner and find a solution. This can help show that you are taking the situation seriously and genuinely care about your customers.
   • Remember the mantra “kill them with kindness.” You can also remember “you catch more bees with honey than vinegar.”
   • Say thank you for reaching out. For example, you might express “Thank you for taking the time to tell me about your experience, Mrs. Maier.”
   • Give her some assurance that you’re going to take care of the complaint and follow up with her. You might say, “I’m going to investigate what happened and I will get back to you within the next day. I’m sure we can fix this.”
   • Ask her if she has any questions for you and address them.
   • Consider asking “what would be an acceptable solution to you?” You don’t have to offer a solution immediately, but can still reassure your customer by saying “Thank you, I’ll take that into consideration as I investigate what happened.”
7. Confirm follow-up details. Make a plan with the customer to follow up on her complaint. This can help reassure her and remind you to take care of the complaint quickly.
   • Ask where and when you can best contact her.
   • Let her know that you’ve written down all of the information and have scheduled the time to talk with the resolution.
   • Leave yourself a note in a prominent place to minimize the risk that you forgot to follow up.

Following Up with Your Customer

1. Investigate the complaint. Before you find a constructive solution to your customer’s complain, investigate the situation further based on her description of events. Ask other employees, review correspondence or security video to help develop a complete picture of what happened.
   • Ask any employees for their perspective on what happened. They may have been directly involved or observed the event and may be able to provide additional details.
   • Read any correspondence or listen to any messages from the customer. Watch any security videos if that is necessary.
   • Forward the complaint to any superiors. A superior may choose to handle the situation to help keep the customer.
2. Formulate an acceptable solution. Once you have a more complete picture of what happened, come up with a solution to the complaint that works for everyone. Consider having alternatives in the event that a superior or the customer doesn’t agree with it.
   • Offer to remedy the situation if possible. If not, come up with some alternative. For example, if the customer had bad service or a poor meal, offer them a free meal and find a server that everyone loves.
3. Contact the customer. Call or write your customer with the solution you have for her complaint. This can show that you are serious and sincere about her concerns and want to keep her as a client.
   • Contact the customer as soon as possible, preferably within one day. Make sure to contact her on or before you said you would. Making her wait may make irritate her even more.
   • Thank her again for reaching out. For example, you can say “Mrs. Maier, I just want to thank you again for contacting me about your experience. I understand how much it upset you and would like to assure you something like this won’t happen again.”
   • Remind your customer that your company successfully deals with many clients every year and that you enjoy a good reputation because of your dedication to customers.
   • Enjoy some light conversation before you offer your solution. This can help diffuse the situation and calm you and your customer. You could ask her about the weather or a sporting event that happened since you last spoke.
4. Offer your solution. After breaking the ice with the customer, kindly offer the solution to her. Remember to keep your tone warm and sincere so that she knows you genuinely care about her complaint and the solution.
   • Tell the customer that you’ve investigated her complaint further and are sorry that she had a bad experience.
   • Let her know the solution that you’ve reached and give her a second to process it. You can ask “how does that sound?”
   • Offer an alternative solution if she doesn’t like what you’ve suggested. Keep your offers to two so that the solution remains acceptable to you.
   • Listen to any other concerns she may have to make her feel valuable.
5. Thank her again. Your customer may be feeling a little embarrassed that she created a fuss. Thank her again for her concern and tell her you’ve available if she needs further assistance.
   • Let your customer know how much you appreciate her and her business.
6. Learn and move on. Even though the situation may have initially been negative, you can use it as a learning experience. Take the process of addressing and following up on the complaint as a constructive way to handle future complaints. Don’t dwell on it, either, because most businesses will receive occasional complaints, some of which have nothing to do with you or your work.
   • Discuss the situation with employees and colleagues to help them learn from the experience, too.
7. Engage your customer again. After some time has passed, consider contacting your customer to make sure the resolution was satisfactory. This can show her that you value her business and allows you to address any potential problems.
   • Call or email and say something like “I don’t mean to bother you, I just want to make sure that you’re satisfied with the solution we found to your complaint.”
   • Chat with your customer if everything is ok and say “We look forward to seeing you again.”
   • Address any further complaints she may have, but be aware that some people may complain on a consistent basis to get free products or services.

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Sources and Citations

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• Handle Angry Customers
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