Customer Complaint Procedures

Anyone who has a business has had the experience of dealing with customer complaints. While listening to a complaining customer is not something most people enjoy, a complaining customer can be an organization’s friend if they try to learn from the complaint.

There are lots of things customers can complain about, including communication breakdowns, process failures, faulty products, rude employees and unclean facilities, just to name a few.

So what are steps you should take in response to a complaining customer?

Acknowledge Complaint

Complaining customers have a perception that somehow their needs and expectations were not met. Acknowledging their concern is the first step in diffusing the emotion of an upset customer.

Don’t Take it Personal

One of the most difficult aspects of listening to complaints is the ability to separate yourself from the issue. Remember the complaint is not about you; it is about a perception of a need that was not met.

Apologize

An apology is the next tool you can use to diffuse an upset customer. Apologizing with sincerity can do a lot to help ease the tension of high emotions. Look the customer in the eye, smile and sincerely apologize and communicate that their issue is important and that you want to make things right for them.

Communicate With a Smile

When listening to a complaining customer, keep your facial expressions and responses as positive as possible. Do not do anything that could cause more emotional response and make matters worse. Be as pleasant as possible and help to resolve the issue for the customer.

Work Toward a Solution

Allow the customer to vent and explain their issue. This is a good time to try and gather all the details of the situation and try to find out where the breakdown happened. Sometimes there are minor misunderstandings or breakdowns in communication that can create an emotional response to a situation. Find out the facts and then try to find out what the customer wants.

Give Customer Options

An upset customer is not interested in what you can’t do so focus on what you can do. You probably won’t always be able to do exactly what the customer wants but there is always something you can do. Focus on what you can offer the customer. Customers don’t necessarily want to hear the why behind an issue; they just want their problem solved. Try to offer a couple options of things you can do to fix the situation for them.

Document and Track Complaints

It is important to document and track complaints. There are formal complaint tracking systems that can help you keep track of complaints. Document: Date, time, description of complaint, employees involved, what customer wanted, what was given to the customer, was the issue resolved, follow-up with customer at a later time. It is always important to check with a customer after the fact to ensure that their issue was resolved to their expectations.

Trend Complaints

Collecting complaint data can help provide the information needed to resolve systemic issues that may not be as evident without supporting data. As an example, if you continually get the same complaint and the same employee is working, there may be an issue with the employee and the way they provide a service or respond to customer needs. This could be a training issue or a performance issue. This is also helpful with performance management data for employees.

Don’t Overreact to Outliers

Sometimes things happen and should be classified as outliers. As an example, if a storm hits and the power goes out and affects the electronic registers causing long wait times at the checkout, the long waits are an outlier and should not necessarily give cause for creating a new process. However, looking into back-up power issues and working toward a proactive plan to ensure the operation is sustainable in the absence of power can be a way to eliminate future issues.

Finally, customers are human and deserved to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect. However, a customer that crosses the line of appropriate communication, specifically cursing and threatening should not be tolerated. Good communication skills in response to a complaint can help minimize angry emotions.

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