Startup Mantra: Handling Customer Complaints

⠀
SAPPOINT
Published in
3 min readJan 1, 2019

No business can completely avoid customer complaints. Customer complaints are inevitable no matter how dedicated the customer satisfaction in a business maybe, and he always face criticism. Whether a complaint is specified or not dealing with a difficult customer is rarely easy, and never fun at all. If you work in a person requiring interaction with customers it is important that you be prepared for potential complaints. Here’s practical rules for dealing with complaints from customers.

Don’t get emotional

No one likes to be attacked or criticized by customer is, if the complaint is unfair. Have patience. Letting down your emotions is the last thing of you what you should do. Be professional and polite to customers which is always required even if they don’t act the same way. Things could turn ugly if you fail to put your emotions to the side.

Listen

Don’t up intraday complaining customer or jump to conclusions about the nature of their problem. Wait politely until they have fully explained the solution before you respond. Be attentive throughout. Giving a customer a chance to fully express themselves as a sign of respect. Besides letting them vent can help cool the situation down.

Apologize

No matter what went wrong, an apology is always the first step to make any recompense. Apologizing tells a customer that you are taking them seriously, and you truly acknowledge the complaint. Orphan simple apology is all and unhappy customer really wants. Customer is actually being unreasonable, your apology is almost always the best policy.

Ask questions

You will probably need to ask a few questions to clarify certain things. If the customers in emotional state just be careful to word the questions so that the customer seems to understand that you are seeking more information, and not attacking them are questioning their account. Try to use the questions to show your concern, as well and what you can do to make things better.

Try to fix the problem

It is incumbent on you to do all you can to resolve the customers complaint as quickly as possible.For example if the customer received a defective product replace it with one that works. What’s even better is going above and beyond simply solving the problem. Example, offer the customer a good discount on the next order. If the customer’s issue cannot be rectified, apologize profusely and promise to do better service next time.

Do better in future

What’s the matter with the customer is settled, it is time to assess what went wrong. How how better we can perform in going forward? It’s a location that sells an opportunity to learn and improve for the future so that you don’t sit on your hands if the problem was something you could have avoided. Plan for avoiding similar address in the future and carry it out. If done properly the customers complaint me actually end up being beneficial. There is no realistic way for a business to completely escape customer complaints. Even the best run businesses will still screw up some of the time. Other times a customer may complain even if there is nothing that had gone wrong. Either way you need to be prepared to handle your customers diligently.

--

--