Every business needs happy customers and clients to be successful. From repeat business to word of mouth, satisfied customers sustain your business and help it to grow.
But not every customer or client is going to be happy all the time.
Your quest, should you choose to accept it, is to view each complaint you receive as an opportunity to build your business and improve your customer relationships. Let’s take a look at how you can transform your angry customers into your biggest fans and become their hero.
Most of the time when someone gets upset, it’s because they believe they have completed their part of the transaction—purchased a product or service—and they have certain expectations for what they will receive in return. When the product is faulty, instructions are unclear, or their experience is somehow disappointing, your customer will become frustrated.
As a result, many people will complain, often with foul language, raised voices, or by posting angry comments on social media.
When a customer lashes out, it’s important not to take it personally. Very rarely is a customer angry at a specific individual. They typically just find the first person upon whom they can take out their frustrations. It could be you, as the owner of a small business, but it could also be a member of your support staff, a salesperson, or someone you’ve hired to help review comments on Twitter or Facebook.
The critical takeaway here is understanding what happened and why the customer is unhappy. Is it possible to identify where your company went wrong? Was there a miscommunication that set up false expectations, or did the customer receive a faulty product?
While there are people who enjoy complaining and will find fault in even the best service, the vast majority are reasonable and just want a resolution to their issue.
As noted, there’s almost always a concrete reason why someone is unhappy with your business, and usually, there’s a corresponding solution. But first, you have to figure out what’s happening. Here are some tips for pushing through the wall of anger to get to the truth.
Picture this scenario: You’re checking your Twitter feed and find someone complaining about the service you’ve offered them. They’re using extreme language as they tell people never to use your business. They want everyone to believe you’re horrible and do terrible work.
When you see it, you think, “How dare they say those terrible things about us?” You take pride in the services and products you offer and can’t believe anyone would say the things they’re saying. You want to set the record straight, so you begin to respond and give them a piece of your mind.
Hold on! Responding in anger is a terrible idea, but believe it or not, this is an area where some companies stumble.
When someone complains in such a public venue, there are a lot of eyes on the interaction. Recognise from the start that this is why they do it—they’re putting pressure on the company to respond and do whatever’s necessary to resolve things.
The good news is that by handling these interactions properly, you can not only resolve the issue but turn what might have been an ugly exchange into something valuable for your business.
When you run a business, you can’t afford to turn away customers. Your goal, therefore, should always be to convert dissatisfaction into loyalty.
This is the holy grail of customer interaction.
But how do you do it?
First, as we discussed above, it’s important to take the time to communicate and listen. Companies known for their excellent customer service get that reputation because they invest in getting to know their customers’ needs.
The best companies try to be proactive and exceed customer expectations from the beginning. When problems arise, however, they resolve issues quickly, without a lot of drama, and go the extra mile to make sure the customer is happy.
That might mean ‘eating’ the cost of a single product if there’s a strong likelihood that the customer will return. For example, an airline can refund the cost of a flight if a customer receives poor treatment. A car dealer can throw in window tinting or other extras. A restaurant can offer to “comp” the meal. And a web designer could cover the cost of hosting and related fees for a year.
As you can see, there are lots of different ways to approach a customer complaint. Most are inexpensive (or free) and can totally transform your relationship with that customer.
Every time a customer or client complains to you or in a public forum, they’re doing you a favour. If you think about it, most people never bother to reach out to companies to let them know they’re unhappy—they just tell their friends. So when one of these dissatisfied customers take the time to contact you, you should reciprocate by giving them your full attention.
After all, by highlighting a pain point in your sales funnel, a flawed product design, poor communication, or whatever their issue is, your customers are giving you feedback you can use to improve your business.
For example, someone who designs mobile apps can use complaints to alert them to unexpected bugs in the software, or a connected application that’s gone offline. Because of their numbers and heavy use, often customers will discover these issues before the developer themselves. Or someone who sells t-shirts can use complaints about quality issues to bring their attention to problems with the manufacturer.