How do you handle criticism? As a business, feedbacks form a crucial part of your daily transactions. Good feedback leads to word-of-mouth publicity while complaints mean potential loss of customers. In fact, every disgruntled customer of yours is bound to tell at least three others of their experience. Complaint management is an art that you need to learn.
When you’re running a business, what do you do with the feedback is what matters most. You not only need to be patient but also tactful in handling complaints on behalf of an organization. Winning over customers that have given you a negative feedback might seem difficult. Yet often, it’s the effort that’s missing. Pay heed to every single customer complaint that you’ve received ensures you don’t repeat the same mistakes, and 85% of the times, even sort out the problems. Issue redressal needs to come right at the beginning, before the damage is done.
The customer feedback problem
Remember, if the customer wasn’t interested, why would he even bother to spend time assessing your business? A customer raises an issue only when he cares about your business and expects you to offer better services. Often, the customer doesn’t want to leave you as your company offers him something that others don’t. The only missing element is a proper point of contact, a place where the customer believes his grievances are actually being listened to.
How do customers give feedback?
A recent study shows customer feedback trends and their impact on a business. The research states that 96 percent of customers don’t complain as they either think of it as a futile effort. Sometimes, they have no idea as to whom they need to approach. In addition, on an average for every complaint received, there are 26 other customers with the same problems, with at least 6 that need immediate attention. Over 65 percent of the customers are dissatisfied but don’t complain, and will never use the services of your company again.
Asking the questions
Customer complaints are ways by which you can determine how well your business has been perceived by the world. It is important that you take customer feedback in the most effective ways and set up a dedicated customer management system to deal with issues that have been pointed out. Don’t run around. Ask the right questions so that critical issues can be nipped in the bud as early as possible. Here are a few questions that you can possibly ask:
- What went wrong?
- What were their expectations from the product or service?
- What were the positives?
- What can be done to improve the service?
What to do with the customer complaints?
Listening is the first stage. But then, what can you do with the customer complaints that you’ve received? If you’re looking for a sustainable business, it is important that you find out ways of issue redressal. Here’s what you can do to fix things:
- Listen to what the customer says and comprehend what they’re actually expecting from you.
- Understand the problems that your customers have faced and apologize without making an argument in support of your business.
- Fix the problem as soon as possible and inform the customer.
- Follow up with the customer and keep him interested in new releases.
By implementing a highly efficient complaint management system and exceeding their expectations every single time, you’d be able to win over loyal customers. Building brand and customer loyalty is easy if you know what to do.
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