Call Center Management Featured Article
Improve Your Customer Service with Customer Complaints
It’s inevitable. No matter how well set up your contact center, how well trained your agents are or how great your products or services are, there will be complaints from customers. Even in a perfect world – and we don’t live in one – some people are going to take issue with your company. Add in reality, such as rushed agents, new trainees, imperfect technology and product or packaging defects, and it’s likely that a steady stream of complaints will begin to arrive as soon as you open for business.
Most companies have policies to deal with complaints. While it’s great to have policies, they’re not much good if agents aren’t trained to use them. We’ve all heard the nightmare phone calls of customer support sessions from agents who have gone “rogue” and said ridiculous things to customers. In an age of viral social media, these single mishaps can turn into a big deal very quickly. It’s also helpful to learn from other companies’ mistakes as well as your own.
One of the best things you can do is to resolve the problem quickly, and err on the side of the customer. Winning a “he said/she said” argument won’t feel like a victory if it’s lost you a customer. It’s often helpful to train agents how to make it up to customers, according to a recent blog post by mpl Contact.
“Go the extra mile by offering a ‘peace offering’ such as a week of your service for free or a free product,” wrote the blogger. “Customers want to know that their voice has been heard and that they are important to your company.”
And while making it up to the customer on the spot is always a great idea, sometimes it’s not possible, particularly if it’s a billing error or a shipping error. In some cases, the contact center will need to rely on others to make a correction for the customer, so it’s important to not simply put the complaint out of mind once it’s out of sight. Put policies in place to follow-up complaint resolutions.
“It’s also good to give the customer a call afterwards, just to check that the problem is fully resolved. This will reassure them and build back their trust in your company,” wrote the mpl Contact blogger.
Once the complaint is resolved, consider using some of those calls to help train new and existing agents, so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel all over again next time a customer has a similar complaint. In other words, learn from your mistakes.
“This effort isn’t just beneficial for the customer, it’s also beneficial for you as a company,” wrote the blogger. “Resolving problems in a fast and friendly manner means that the customer will be impressed with your reaction, and may even share this positive trait with their friends, family and colleagues.”
There is evidence that customers who have had problems followed by successful resolutions make even more loyal customers than those who have never had a problem. Use every opportunity to do right by the customer, and it may wind up being of benefit to your bottom line.
Edited by Alicia Young