moans and groans

Nobody likes dealing with complaints. They’re like a hot potatoe everyone avoids and pushes away, for someone else to deal. It’s also not something that anybody can deal. It requires a psychological thought process, the ability to empathize while distancing, an a hell lot of diplomacy.

You will find that most of the dealings with complaints is actually about agreeing with the customer. 9/10 times the company’s actually better off by giving the customer what they want. It has been proven more cost effective to do that then to dispute the customer’s argument, for the sake of advocating on the company’s behalf.

When dealing with complaints it can cause more harm than good to dispute. And there’s so much less grief involved in satisfying the customers’s needs. This is, provided their satisfaction level meets the companies’ obligations.

We’re not talking about agreeing with a customer to offer a paid holiday because they didn’t receive their order in time, it needs to be reasonable. This is where a lot of common sense is crucial to not allow the customers to take advantage when a company accepts the fault for an order gone wrong.

Not disputing, agreeing with the customer, fulfilling the customer’s expectations may even lead to a complaint full withdrawal. Now, at the point where the issue was not addressed well enough on first point of contact to prevent a complaint being recorded, that’s the ultimate complaint-dealing goal.

Again, honouring a business T&Cs at all times, and not only when “no returns/refunds are accepted after the 14 day cooling-off period”, is important. This reassures the customers upfront your company is transparent, impartial and fair if they ever come across a problem that needs sorting. The customers will trust you and your business.

Trust will build your business credibility, more “likes” and good online reviews, which will bring more business in. This can only happen by keeping up these values in a consistent manner.

Ultimately this is the level of trading you want your company to be at. A level that makes the customers feel safe in doing business with you from the start.