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Free Website Content - Listen to Your Customers
Customer Complaints
By Sharon Housley
Mastering the art of managing customer complaints
can seem like a thankless job, but keep in mind that for
every customer that shares their worries, concerns or complaints,
there are likely more that did not express their dissatisfaction,
and instead simply moved on to a competitor. Customer complaints
can, and should be treated as opportunities.
Customers that are willing to communicate
can help provide information on how your product or service
is being used in a specific market segment. Complaints give
you the opportunity to see how your company is falling short
of customer expectations.
No company is perfect. As Dr. Phil often says,
"We cannot fix that which we do not acknowledge." Acknowledging
an area in need of improvement will get you that much closer
to perfection. Customers who complain are indicating where
you need improvement; seize the opportunity to improve.
Adjust the systems that are deficient. Mistakes happen,
learn from them and prevent the same errors or problems
from recurring.
Communication is critical to resolving customer
complaints. First off, listen to their problem, and empathize
this will hopefully help diffuse their anger. Also be sure
to remind them you are on their side, and you understand
their frustration.
Communicate a plan to address their problem,
and provide a timetable for resolution. Unfortunately, not
all problems can be immediately rectified, providing a time
table will help manage the customer's expectations. Once
the problem is resolved, communicate the resolution, thank
the customer for bringing the issue to your attention.
Resolving customer complaints builds customer
loyalty. Everything was not perfect, and yet you made efforts
to correct the issues that customer brought to your attention.
It is possible to turn customer complaints into assets.
Customers that feel you responded will often become an advocate
for your business.
Track consumer complaints and watch for any
patterns. After a complaint is resolved, conduct a post-mortem,
take a close look at the procedures and systems, implement
changes to prevent a similar issue from recurring. Perhaps
redundancy is required.
Of course, there is no need to wait for a
complaint to improve processes. Look at systems or procedures
where items might slip through the cracks. Is there an area
that results in customer confusion? Business processes should
be constantly evolving; take a close look at any critical
systems and consider how you can implement changes to prevent
any mishaps or problems from occurring.
When complaints appear in a product or company
forum, your initial reaction might be to delete the post
altogether, but a public complaint that is dealt with in
a professional and timely manner is very telling. This will
give other users confidence that if there is an issue they
can expect a reasonable resolution.
Many companies that understand the value of
customer feedback solicit comments from customers, often
offering incentives for polite, honest feedback. If you
wish to be proactive send follow up emails to all customers
who have queried your company. This is quality assurance
and a great way to solicit customer feedback.
Few people enjoy dealing with customer complaints.
The trick is to use the feedback in a constructive way and
turn criticism into compliments.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and
podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll
http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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This article may be used freely in opt-in
publications and websites, provided that the resource box
is included and the links are active. A courtesy copy of
the issue or a link to any online posting would be greatly
appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
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Additional articles available for publication available
at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
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