Every business, whatever its size, will have to deal with customer complaints at some stage. You may find yourself having to deal with customers who are difficult and demanding. They may have a complaint that you feel isn't justified, or you may be 100% in the wrong. Whatever the case, there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with customer complaints.
If you handle the complaint well, the end result may be that you appease the customer and they are satisfied with how their complaint is dealt with, resulting in them remaining a customer of yours. If you handle it poorly, they will never come back again and they will tell their friends not to use your business. The only real loser in this situation is you.
The real dollar value of losing customers due to poor handling of a complaint can be quite amazing. If I spend $10 a day on coffee from a local coffee shop, that makes me worth about $3,650 a year to that particular business. Multiply that over a few years and the real cost of losing a customer soon becomes apparent.
The moral to the story is that the best way to handle customer complaints is to avoid having them arise in the first place. Make sure that you have the systems in place and the ongoing monitoring to reduce the chances of customer complaints. Most importantly, stay in touch with your customers, ask them about your business, and make certain that they are completely happy with the service that you are offering.