Every day we expect our routine work to be carried out normally, a day where we get a lot of sales and our customers are 100% satisfied with our products. However, this could not be further from reality.
In our work, is normal that many situations in or out of our reach to cause an upset with our customers and prospects, something few companies know handle properly.
According to Entrepreneur magazine, a satisfied customer can make us reach 3 new prospects, while an upset customer can make us lose up to 7 potential business. That’s the importance of proper management about negative reviews and our system failures.
Now we present eight different ways to properly handle a complaint from our customers, to have a successful company:
Define the magnitude. Is important to resolve the complaint prior to evaluate how far it can go, to integrate a team capable of solving it. If you think about it before, you can identify the course of action necessary to correct it.
Understand why. What the customer really looking for? Are they looking for the return of equipment or adjustment to it? They want an apology or just be heard by the manufacturer? Understand the expected result may help you design your final answer.
Projecting the impact. All complaints must have the best handling from you, even some are more important than others. But it is necessary to identify the most important threats and prioritizes resources to resolve them. Then you can solve with the same attention those that symbolize a lesser threat.
Not miss a long time. Is necessary to create a mechanism that allows you to answer all complaints fast and with excellence.. An automatic response to emails is a functional tool, but calls and instant messages must be answered manually.
First listen and then remedy the problem. In many cases the complaints are thrown into a moment of anger and without thinking too much. Some customers only want to be heard and with some compassion and empathy can leave that state of anger.
Identify the customer. Sometimes complaints by consumers looking for a freebie or have an ulterior motive, as criticize your company and products. If that’s the case, you better offer an apology and ensure that will not happen in the future. Without snagging much in the situation
Search group and interdepartmental cooperation. If possible, involve collaborators from different areas in the solution, this can cause them to become allies and provide feedback to resolve situations in the future.
Ask for a positive review. If you have already solved the concerns of your customers, do not be afraid to ask them to change their refusal or ask a positive review. Keep in mind that the worst that can happen is that they say no.
It is important to consider designating a person or department for proper handling complaints, may not seem important, but you should know that companies that have successfully resolved complaints have 37% more annual sales than average.