How to Respond to a Customer Service Complaint

Handling complaints well will impact your business' bottom line.

How you react or respond to a customer complaint directly impacts your customer's perception of your company and will determine whether or not the customer will want to continue doing business with you in the future. According to the University of Florida, you want customers to regularly provide feedback on the matters that bother them, as many customers take their business elsewhere without saying a word. To address a customer complaint, you must identify the actual issue, resolve it and make the customer feel you've done everything in your power to resolve the issue.

Things You'll Need

• Internet access (optional)
• Phone

Instructions

1. Listen to the customer in entirety during the complaint. Repeat back what you hear with phrases such as "Let me see if I understand what you're saying," or "If I understand you correctly," and then repeat back to the customer what you hear.

2. Identify the issue or issues that need to be dealt with separately and write them down. Verify the issues with the customer. Ask clarifying questions such as "In what way?" or "Is that what you mean?" if necessary.

3. Agree with the customer that a problem or issue exists, because in the customer's mind one does exist, and to the customer it's quite important that it is resolved. This is true even if the customer is mistaken and the issue can easily be resolved by providing correct information.

4. Take ownership of the issue and do your best to resolve it, looking up information, working with other departments and whatever else is necessary to resolve the issue.

5. Thank the customer for bringing the issue to your attention and ask him if everything was solved to his satisfaction. Remind the customer you welcome absolute honesty and frankness and that you are there to help.

Tips & Warnings

• Provide an option for customers to provide open and brutally honest feedback about her experiences, thoughts, issues, complaints or suggestions in the form of regularly mailed customer surveys, a suggestion box or a local mailing address where this feedback can be mailed to. Inviting the customers to be honest about complaints allows your business to address things that may have otherwise not been known, resulting in lost customers over time.

• Never argue with the customer as it only makes the situation worse. The customer is trusting you to resolve the problem. Do not break any company policy or applicable laws when trying to resolve a customer complaint.

References

• University of Florida: Customer Complaints and Types of Customers