Every business needs to have a clear plan for what to do when it receives a complaint. Some people feel that putting this kind of plan in place is an admission of some sort of business failing, but it's quite the opposite. By having a simple, easy-to-implement plan that can be actioned whenever a customer has a complaint, you are simply acknowledging the fact that we are all human, and that sometimes mistakes happen. If you get a complaint from a customer, don't torture yourself about it; move forward to resolve the complaint and keep the customer as happy as possible.
A customer complaint policy should be a simple document that covers the following:
- How staff should act when taking a complaint from a customer. This includes acknowledging the complaint, listening to the customer and letting them air their grievance, ways to handle an angry or threatening customer, and some simple techniques for dealing with confrontation of this nature.
- Establish exactly how the customer would like to see the complaint resolved.
- Determine who should be involved in the complaint process. Is the complaint fairly simple to resolve on the spot, or should other, more senior members of staff be involved?
- Record information about the complaint. If the complaint cannot be resolved on the spot, what information needs to be recorded to ensure prompt processing and resolution?
- Advise the customer of what steps will be taken to resolve their complaint and the expected time frame for the resolution process.
- Advise the customer who will be handling the complaint and give them their contact details.
- Ensure that the complaint is followed-up and that the customer is satisfied with the outcome.
Once you have developed your customer complaint policy, make sure that all your staff read and fully understand it. They may have suggestions for improving the policy and their comments should be trained to know and understand all aspects of the customer complaint policy, and this training procedure needs to be repeated on a regular basis.
Now that I have said that you should develop a complaints policy, please don't become completely inflexible, hiding behind the policy as a convenient barrier. We all hate hearing the words, 'That's our policy and we can't make exceptions'. Good customer service is all about ensuring that your customers are satisfied with service the service that you offer. Look at each individual complaint from the customer's point of view and aim to resolve it in a fair manner. If this falls outside of the policy, so be it.
Complaints are a by-product of having customers. As long as you deal with them promptly and professionally, there is a good chance that you will keep your customers and they will become even more loyal simply because you handled the situation well.