Customer Complaints are a “Good Thing”
Have you ever had a customer who was unhappy with your products and/or services, yet didn’t let you know? Have you ever considered that this customer may have told all their friends and family about their dissatisfaction? Have you ever thought that customer complaints were really a good thing?
If customers let us know that they are dissatisfied, we have the opportunity to do something positive and hopefully, retain that customer’s business. But for many of us, it not easy to handle complaints. Let’s face it: no one likes to be yelled at!
In an article in The Gourmet Retailer, author Maggie Bayless describes five steps for handling customer complaints:
- Acknowledge the complaint.
- Sincerely apologize.
- Make it right.
- Say thanks.
- Write it up.
I suggest that you read the full article to get the full benefit. An important thing that I was reminded is that dealing to customer complaints is not a matter of finding out “who’s right and who’s wrong”. Rather, it’s a recognition that for some reason, our customer is dissatisfied and as business owners, it’s our job to turn this “dissatisfaction” into “satisfaction”. If we can focus on this “service” aspect of doing business, I believe that success will automatically follow!
2 comments October 12th, 2009
