What would you do if you woke up one morning and right there on your Facebook page, for the whole world to see, was a complaint about how terrible one of your staff members was treating customers? Customer complaints are nothing new, however, it once was that when customers received poor service from you or your staff, they verbally told their friends. Now thanks to social media they can tell the world and in many cases the world listens.
This is exactly what happen to the woman who called me up last week stressed because one of her employees was going rogue and the world was learning about how badly they could be treated if they crossed the threshold of her establishment. It is easier than ever for disgruntled customers to complain about poor service, bad products or even policies they don’t like. In fact, in this day and age you don’t even have to be a customer to raise a fuss about a business and try to ruin its reputation. I had this exact situation a few years ago where people who were halfway around the globe were trying to discredit us on social media.
Complaints about your business should be a good reason for you to stop and wonder if you are in the wrong. If customers didn’t tell us what they didn’t like about the business, how could we progress? When we listen to what our clients are telling us it gives us the opportunity to improve on aspects of our organizations that perhaps we haven’t noticed. Yet far too often we brush off those complaints until they blow up in our face or hit social media.
In the case of the woman who called me, she told me that she had known for a while that her staff member was not ideal. She said that this staff member had upset customers in the past some of whom had left in a huff after encounters with her. However, the owner had chosen to ignore the issue because it was hard to find employees and she needed to take holidays. I get that it can be difficult to find great staff but when we compromise our values for a short-term gain, we risk everything we have invested in building our business.
Dealing with customer complaints is not rocket science. In my experience of 30 years of business and millions of transactions, I have had to deal with hundreds of customers that who took issue with something that they didn’t like about a product or service they received. In 99 per cent of the cases, the customers are right. Either the product didn’t work or the service they got was not up to standard. Customers had spent their hard-earned money in our establishments and expected us to live up to our promise of customer satisfaction.
Most people don’t want to make a big fuss about nothing. Complaining takes energy and while there are some people who will complain more than others, the majority of people only raise issues when they are seriously upset.
The key to dealing with upset customers is compassion. What customers want more than anything is someone to listen to their complaints. When we take the time to truly get to the root of the issue and actually listen to what the customer is saying, in most cases we can understand why they are frustrated and then deal with that frustration.
In 99 per cent of cases, customers are realistic. They know there are limits to what you can do in your business to make things right. One solution is simply asking your customers what would be a reasonable resolution to the problem. What is it that they expect? I have been surprised when I have asked this. In many cases, they simply want to bring it to your attention. They don’t want money or you to fire the employee that caused them grief. They want you to hear what they are saying. In other cases, they want a replacement, reimbursement or the resolution concerning the product or service issues. Again, its not brain surgery you are performing. You are simply making it right.
Recently, I had a complaint with Telus about how they offered a service to new customers but not existing customers. The staff member I was dealing with didn’t have the power to resolve the issue. However, when someone higher up heard my complaint, they made it right.
Being courageous enough to root out troublesome issues for our customers, “making it right” for them, ensures longevity and success for our businesses.
- Dave Fuller MBA, is an award-winning business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Complaint about this column? Email dave@pivotleader.com
