WELCOME THOSE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS!
By Kathy Shook
We all understand that customer satisfaction is the key to success in the business world. And we all dread those customers who come to us with a complaint. However, you should welcome those customers who complain and here’s why:
For every customer who bothers to complain, 26 other customers remain silent.
Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs
Yes, be grateful to that one customer who complains. He gives you an opportunity to improve your overall customer service. A customer complaint provides you a wealth of information about not just your employees’ service quality, but also about your marketing, products, speed, vendors and other business strategies. If one part of your service delivery process is not performing well, don’t you want to know that?
Putting in place an effective service recovery plan supplies your firm with a reliable measure to improve satisfaction, increase loyalty and building lasting customer relationships. And a truly effective service recovery plan can even reverse any negative impression the customer may have had in the first place.
Just three steps are required to manage your customer complaints:
- Acknowledge their complaint right away
- Provide a quick resolution of their problem/issue/misunderstanding
- Have a reliable tracking system for complaints
When a complaining customer’s issue is quickly resolved to his satisfaction, he becomes an even more loyal customer of your company!
On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase.
Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs
British Airways’ customer-relations department remains a key component to their success. The retention rate among those who complain to customer relations has more than doubled, while its return on investment (the value of business saved plus increased loyalty and new business from referrals relative to the department’s total costs) has risen 200%. British Airways employees are never happy with complaints but are eager to hear when they occur because they know that ignorance is anything but bliss.
Your management philosophy should embrace customer satisfaction as a primary goal. Welcome those customer complaints so you can learn from them and create more loyal customers who will come back to you again and again because you’ve built trust with them.
5-20%
Probability of selling to a new prospect
60-70%
Probability of selling to an existing customer
Source: Marketing Metrics
Pretty much a no-brainer! Be sure your staff knows how to handle customer complaints properly and that you track complaint issues to take advantage of the opportunity they provide.
Does your staff need new skills in dealing with customer complaints? Check out our latest program: Handling Irate Customers
Share your thoughts on our blog here or Facebook page.
Download our free Common Customer Complaints List here to make sure you aren’t losing customers due to poor complaint handling. The first step? KNOW what your customers think!
For more information contact Amy at Amy@insightyoucanuse.com or 800-259-8551 x220
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linked In, Google Plus, and Pinterest
