Friday, May 14, 2010

Customer complaints – An opportunity

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.
-Zig Ziglar

Sometimes complaints can be overwhelming. However, by taking them in stride with an open mind, we can learn much from our customers' feelings about our business. After all, a complaint is nothing more that a person telling you that his / her needs haven't been met.

Be careful not to call his complaint or situation a problem, because doing so might aggravate him to the point that he loses his ability to think and express himself clearly. The second most frequently stated reasons customers leave a company is that the company did not handle their complaints well. The cause of most customer complaints is failed expectations. As dissatisfied customers, they are giving us a second chance to correct something that should have been done properly the first time around. If you listen to them patiently and attentively, their complaints will alert you to a real or potential problem, or tell you of a better way to handle a situation. A little common sense, a lot of genuine sincerity, and some tact will go a long way in resolving the issue.

We are not used, however, to coping with complaints. We let our emotions rule our thinking usually. Consequently, we let complaints wear us out because we take on the complaint as a personal attack on us. It is not! Consider this, that every customer complaint may actually give you an opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition. If handled effectively, complaints may actually increase customer and brand loyalty. It costs five times more to reach a new customer than to keep a current one. So it makes sense that we can increase profits by keeping customers happy with better complaint handling.

Hence, we should make it a goal for every single customer who walks through our door to have a better impression of our business when they leave than they did when they came in. We should handle the customer with care and with sincere professional courtesy. It can be a leading indicator of impending change in customer mindset at a brand or industry level.

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