THE EXSELLERS EIGHT-STEP APPROACH TO HANDLING CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

How would you like to score eight A’s in an exam? I believe that would make you ecstatic. You must, and can, score eight straight A’s in one of the areas you are consistently being examined in as a business person. It is a must that you score all A’s in this particular area of your business operations because the long-term survival of your business depends on it. In this particular exam you cannot afford to flunk on any questions. The area of your business operations you are always being examined on is in the way and manner you handle customer complaints.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. (Bill Gates)

This article is in response to numerous calls and mails I received after the previous week’s piece titled Thank God for Customer Complaints. Most callers and writers wanted to know the specifics of handling customer complaints and I must admit, that article did not help in providing those specific answers. In actual fact, it was not my intention to provide steps in a customer complaints handling process with that article; this present article is intended to do that- i.e. take readers through the steps in expertly handling customer complaints.

1. ACCESS
To have access to is to have the right to enter. For purposes of customer complaints access refers to the ease with which customers are allowed to complain. Many businesses fail to recognise the basic premise that customers have a right to complain about anything that does not meet their standards. By bringing his or her business to you and to none of your competitors, the customer earns a right to complain if you fail to meet his or her expectations. Businesses that are serious about providing excellent customer service allow customers unrestricted access to complain. I get worried when I encounter businesses that have no suggestion boxes, direct phone lines for complaints or even desks dedicated solely to receive customer suggestions or complaints.

Granting access for customer complaints also means going out of your way to solicit for complaints. Many businesses make that fatal mistake of believing that since they do not receive any complaints from customers they are doing well. This is an error of the greatest magnitude. Research after research has shown that for every single complaint made by a business’ clients, there are as much as twenty-five complaints that are not made. This should give an indication of the number of customers you have not satisfied who have just decided not to complain but quietly go away.

Customers who refuse to voice out their complaints are to be feared by every business. They will quietly take away their business without your knowledge. I had so many experiences with such customers as a banking official. The time you realise that you have lost an important customer is when you see a cheque coming in to clear all the money in the account to another bank. Proactive bank managers have been known to take those cheques and rush to the customers to inquire where they might have gone wrong. Some managers have succeeded in bringing back those customers but many times the situation might have deteriorated beyond repairs. This is why it is important to always be on the look out for any little issues that might generate into major headaches.

2. ATTENTION
It is not enough to receive customer complaints. It is important to go beyond merely giving access for complaints to be brought to your attention. In handling customer complaints, access must go hand-in-hand with attention. Customer-oriented businesses provide undivided attention to customers who come forward with complaints.

If the primary recipient of customer complaints is an officer on the premises, it is imperative for that person to be a very good listener. Not everyone does well at listening. Listening is an art that can be taught and learnt, therefore front line staff must be very good listeners. When a customer is given undivided attention without regular interruptions from incoming calls, colleagues or other customers, the complaining customer feels special. He or she realises that the business takes his or her complaints seriously.

If the business relies on a suggestion box to receive complaints, it is important that the box is opened regularly and complaints handled expeditiously. I advise business to place notices at the customer reception areas assuring customers that their complaints have been received and that management is seeing to the complaints. A notice like this tells customers that yours is a business that truly ‘walks its talk’.

For businesses that rely on telephone calls to receive complaints, it is important that follow-up calls are promptly made. Customers detest it if they have to wait for days without any news about a complaint they had lodged. The longer the company waits without responding to the customer’s call, the greater the chances become of losing that particular customer. Excellent businesses know that attention is important in building solid relationships with customers.

3. ADDITIONAL COMPLAINTS
I had an experience once that informed this step. I had gone to lodge a complaint with a company I was doing some business with. I was directed to a lady to talk to. After hearing me out for a few minutes, she interrupted me, looked into my faces sternly and told me she had heard my complaints and that I could go. She said that I would hear from them and with that she got up readying herself to go. I was shocked. An aggrieved customer is a wonderful opportunity for a business to endear itself to a customer. I knew from the lady’s reaction that she saw me as a nuisance and she obviously felt she had done her best to tolerate me. This attitude does not work when dealing with customer complaints.

It is always to make the customer feel at home. One sure way to do this is to wait for the customer to voice out all the complaints he or she came with and then ask if there are any more. “Anything else?” This simple two-worded question is packed with emotion if asked in the right tone. Asking for additional complaints has the power to “kill two birds with one stone.” You are telling the customer that you are prepared, and have the capacity, to handle the original complaint together with any others that might be bothering the one. At the same time you are likely to get more complaints to work on at their early stages before they fester into unmanageable problems.

Go beyond the original complaint on the table. The lady did not do that with me. I walked out of the meeting knowing she was never going to do anything about my complaint and I had vowed never to return there. Interestingly, both prophesies came to pass. The company never called me and I never went back-one customer gone for good.

4. AGREEMENT
This is one of the questions many front line staff and customer service personnel fail to answer appropriately. Whenever a customer comes with a grievance, it is important that after listening, you agree with what he or she had to say. “That is not always smart,” I sense someone iterating. Hear me out before you come to that conclusion. It is a fact that not all customer complaints have any basis in validity. Some complaints stems from blatant ignorance, others out of plain mischief. However, it is absolutely a no-go zone to argue out with the customer or make sarcastic remarks to make the one feel stupid. I have witnessed this behaviour of some front line staff a couple of times and it never ceases to amaze me. Your initial reaction after the customer is done is to agree with the one’s feelings.
“I know how you feel.”
“I believe you are not pleased about this situation.”
“That must really be painful for you.”
These are initial statements that provide a cordial atmosphere for a good hearty discussion. I have heard un-professionals make statements like:
“Oh, this small thing that you’re complaining about!”
This is so wrong. Never blatantly voice out your disagreements with a customer. No matter how far from sanity that customer’s assertions might be, it is your duty to be as tactful as possible in handling the complaint. The more you argue with the customer, the more the customer becomes entrenched in his or her position. Successfully arguing with a customer only serves one purpose; you win the argument but lose the customer. Agreeing with the customer tells the one that you understand his or her position. It builds a bridge across which many beneficial future interactions can be made. A disagreement builds a wall between you and the customer that would take a bulldozer to pull down. Disagreements create an atmosphere of distrust and animosity that would, more often than not, end up in a break up of the business-customer relationship.

5. APOLOGY
An apology is always right after listening to a customer complaint whether it is the company’s fault or not. After the customer is done with all that is on his or her mind, you must immediately apologise. This is not the time to justify. An apology must first precede any justification. In apologising assure the customer that the unpleasant situation will not arise again. The apology, be it verbal or in a written form, must be brief and straight to the point. This is not the time to be all flowery in speech and prose and over dramatise the situation. The apology must necessarily be considerate of the feelings of the customer and it must show respect. Own up wholly to the problem. Take all the blame. Do not take half or a quarter of the responsibility for the situation and push the rest on the customer. I have overheard some customer service personnel tell a client, “We are sorry we did not send you the reminder, but you too, you should have called to check on it!” This is not acceptable. Rather say something like this:
“Our sincere apologies, Mr. X. It is our fault. Obviously we’ve failed to meet the mark to satisfy a valuable customer like you. Please accept our apologies.”

Aggrieved customers are not interested in why the problem occurred; they are more interested in knowing what you intend to do about it. Apologise and move on to the next step.

6. ACTION
This is the stage for righting the wrong. You must act as quickly as possible to ameliorate the situation. This is another quicksand for many businesses. They go through all the steps mentioned above but after they promise to rectify the situation, they never do. Many businesses are guilty of this very flaw. Banks over-debit your account and after you complain and they promise to check it out, your account statement comes back the next month with the same mistake. Your insurance premium fails to go through and after complaining the situation continues for another two months. You have a problem with your prepaid electricity meter or telephone line at home, you call the service providers who promise you they are on their way. You end up waiting for two weeks.

I could go on and on in this direction but I guess my point is made. Many businesses end up losing valuable customers to the competition just because of this step in the complaint handling process. In terms of customer complaint handling, delayed action is denied action. In terms of handling a complaint, ‘Better late than never’ might be too late.

7. APPRECIATION
This is the point where you make the customer feel good for coming to you with the problem. It is the time to sell your business across to the customer-an opportunity to endear yourself to the customer. Inquire from the customer if the solution provided meets his or her expectations. Then thank the customer for bringing the situation to your notice. Assure the one of your company’s undying commitment to the his or her satisfaction.
A statement like this is in the right order:
“We greatly appreciate all the time and efforts you put into bringing this situation to our attention. Most customers would not bother. We are truly grateful that you have given us the opportunity to rectify this situation. Thank you.”

8. ARCHIVE
To ward off any future mishaps in that direction, it is always advisable that businesses have a system that documents all customer complaints. This system, when well set and managed, can be a goldmine for many customer-oriented innovations by the business. Documenting customer complaints extensively will provide the business with valuable data for future decisions. If you notice that one particular complaint keeps coming up, it is an indication that you take a close look at that issue.

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)

So there you have it-the Exsellers Eight-step Process for effectively handling customer complaints. Take these steps and master them and you are sure to score straight A’s whenever you are faced with the test of handling a disgruntled customer. Miss or ignore a single step, and your competitor across the street will be smiling.