Handling customer complaints can be challenging for your business. It can feel like you’re in the firing line, with no protection.
Learning how to handle complaints properly is important for safeguarding yourself, your business, and your customers.
In this blog, we’re sharing 4 common complaints and some best practice tips on how to resolve them. This will help your customer service team to be better prepared and have more positive outcomes.
Long Wait on Hold
One of the top reasons customers will complain is due to having to wait too long on hold. After about two minutes, customers are likely to hang up, and studies show that 34% of these customers won’t call back. This means you can lose a significant amount of sales just by not answering the phone fast enough.
To resolve this problem, you may need to hire more customer service staff to meet the demand. In the meantime, make sure your staff apologise for long wait times. Another useful tactic is to adopt automation technology. This will help your team to streamline tasks and be more efficient.
Poor Product
If your product breaks or is faulty, you can expect your customers to complain. Even if your product doesn’t fully break, but just fails to meet their expectations, then they will complain. Sometimes, the issue may be that the customer simply doesn’t know how to use the product, or it doesn’t suit their needs. Whatever the reason, you need to have a response ready to prevent them going to your competitor.
To resolve this issue, first try to educate the customer. Find out what their goals and needs are, then teach them how they can use the product to achieve success. If the product is broken, provide options for immediate replacement and try to determine how it broke. If it was user error, gently point out to the customer how they can avoid this outcome in the future.
Out of Stock or Unavailable Product
Another common reason why customers will complain is if your product is out of stock or unavailable. They may become impatient for its return. They may demand a special order to repeatedly call you for updates.
To resolve this issue, try to keep track of what products you have in stock and not advertise something that’s unavailable. Also ask your team to be proactive in contacting customers when the new stock does arrive.
Uninterested Sales Rep
Having a poor experience with your staff or service reps can be another common reason why customers complain. Whether it’s their tone, personality, or even the time of day, some customers just won’t get along with your staff. When a rep fails to meet their needs, some customers will think that they are not interested in them. This will then damage your business’ reputation.
To resolve an issue like this, your staff need to provide above and beyond customer service. Your staff should pay attention to their tone and body language, and ensure they are displaying an attentive demeanour.
Looking for a Better Way to Handle Complaints?
If you’re looking for an easier way to track, manage and resolve complaints, then take a look at our software.
At Causia®, our Complaints Pro® provides a quick, cost-effective, centralised workflow for the best practice management of complaints. We can give you complete visibility and control of your complaints, incidents and risks in a single integrated solution.
Book a demo or talk to our expert team today to streamline your approach.
