Customer complaints — they come in the form of an angry email, a scathing online review, an awkward in-person encounter, a negative tweet, or an unexpected phone call.
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When you have a customer complaint, the first action that I recommend taking is to listen to the issue and focus on what your customer is experiencing. Regardless of whether the complaint is over a price increase, a bad meal, or a service outage, this person is reaching out to you to express their frustration.
Though it can be tempting to ignore online reviews, you should give the same time and energy to those who submit feedback digitally as you would with in-person complaints. After all, research shows most consumers are using social media and the internet to discover new brands and products.
I would advise reading through online reviews as soon as you get them so you can provide customers with prompt and thoughtful responses.
Additionally, it’s easy to get defensive or to write off a complaint, but keep in mind that complaints rarely exist in a vacuum. If one customer is coming to you with this feedback, several others are keeping quiet about it.
A customer's complaint should always be treated as legitimate, so give their story your full attention and empathy.
Pro Tip: Take detailed notes of the customer's complaint. I would note information such as the date of the incident, any product or service numbers mentioned, how the customer is feeling, and any other relevant information that could help you resolve the issue.
Some feedback can hit hard. It's not easy to acknowledge that you let a customer down, but getting to the root of the problem is an essential step to properly handling their complaint.
If you get this feedback online — such as an online review or through social media — you have some time to understand where the customer is coming from. Here’s a tip that I received from former HubSpot support rep, Clint Fontanella:
If you did not serve this customer directly or were not present when the incident occurred, you can also use this extra time to speak with your employees and investigate what happened.
Processing criticism is harder if you‘re getting it in real time, like in person or over a phone call. This situation calls on you to put yourself in your customer’s shoes sooner rather than later and truly prioritize fixing the issue, which can only be done if you listen to the complaint and digest the meaning of it.
Pro Tip: Once you‘ve taken a moment to process the complaint, reiterate your understanding back to the customer. This shows you’re listening and are taking their concerns seriously. Respond in a timely manner with an apology and a plan of action.
Fontanella recommends having a canned response ready that you can adapt for situations like these:
“While you never want to use the same response for different customers, canned responses give you a baseline to work from. One that I would rely on for cases like these was, ‘I appreciate your feedback about X and I understand how it can prevent you from accomplishing Y. I am going to see what I can do to either help you accomplish Y or find a workaround that can act as an alternative solution.’”
Consider setting up an action plan for recurring customer complaints. That way you'll know how to solve an issue almost immediately after listening to the details behind it. If possible, it’s worth using customer service software to take a look at service data and uncover common problems.
For example, you could generate reports to identify how often customers use their knowledge base, what kind of information they look for the most, and how many customers decide to take their issues to live agents — all the insights necessary to come up with a proper action plan.
However, as you‘re well aware, sometimes a complaint comes completely out of left field and you’re not sure what to do. If you need some time to think about the best course of action, be honest with your customers.
Tell them you need time to figure out how you can make it up to them and provide a timeline for when you'll reach out with a solution — or better yet, ask customers what they need for you to make it up to them and figure out if their request is doable.
Your customer will appreciate that you acknowledged their complaint even if you don't have a solution yet.
Pro Tip: If a customer's complaint is due to an issue that you or your team caused, do not hesitate to offer something in return. Whether it be discounts, complementary products, or simple apology coupons, figure out what would help make up for the mistake.
The first thing you should say when responding to a customer complaint is “thank you for letting me know.” We‘ve harkened back to this idea a few times, but it’s important — the majority of customers who have complaints about your business just want to be heard and acknowledged.
Even if the customer‘s comments don’t make you feel good in the moment, you should still thank them for their insight. After all, the information that feedback contains can radically improve your customer experience.
Pro Tip: If the customer is looking for a response, get back to them in a timely manner. Responding within at least 24 hours shows your customers that their feedback is taken seriously and valued. If you’re working on a real-time channel like live chat, be sure to respond as quickly as possible or install a chatbot to keep your support live 24/7.
20 prompts to help you respond to customer complaints and comments.
