The Relationship Difference by Rommel Anacan
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Training & Speaking
    • Consulting
    • Your Training Department
    • Multi-Family Housing
    • Video Production Services
  • Meet Rommel
  • Speaking Samples
  • Fan Feedback
  • Contact Us

It's Our Blog!

Grab a cup of coffee, relax for a minute or two, find your happy place, read the posts and join in the conversation!

First Time Visitor?

Five Ways to Manage Customer Complaints

1/14/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Have you ever heard the statement, “Customer service would be easy if it weren’t for those customers?” Sometimes that is just too true, isn’t it? 

After all we know that sometimes customers:
  • Don’t read the fine print
  • Don’t think the rules apply to them
  • Cause the problem then get mad at you for the problem
  • Can be unreasonable
  • Can be dishonest
  • And on and on and on and on



The challenge that you face is even if a complaining customer is all of the above, you still have to deal with the situation don’t you? In other words, the fact that a customer may be all of the above doesn’t mean that you can just set aside their complaints and brush them off. 

Well you could try but then you still have ‘Harold’ standing in the middle of your office, or the sales floor, wondering why he can’t “speak to the manager!”

So what can you do...or what can you encourage your teams to do to manage these situations? After being in contact with thousands of people during my career, I have isolated FOUR effective things that people can do when someone complains. 

Help the customer feel important:

The most important “people-skill” that I believe all of us should learn is how to make other people feel important. If you are able to make an unhappy customer feel important, you will go a long way towards resolving any issues, even before you get to resolving the issue. 

I cannot tell you how many times I spoke with people who just needed to vent and feel as if they were important enough to be heard. And even when I couldn’t give these people what they asked for,  I still got lots of “thank yous” and even some apologies after I took the time to make sure they felt important. 

Remember it’s not a battle:

One of the most common mistakes that associates make is approaching a customer complaint as if it were a battle to be won or lost. How many times have you seen this when you’ve lodged a complaint with a company? Don’t you often want to say, “Look I’m not the enemy here, I’m just unhappy about this!” 

A battle with a customer is a battle you cannot win, even if you’re right. And the issue shouldn’t be about trying to prove who is “right” and who is “wrong” but how the issue may be resolved. 

And the more you fight with a customer, the less important you make them feel . . . which means they will continue to do what they have to do to prove they are important!

Lose the snark-Use some warmth:

When someone has a complaint, she often braces for “impact.” In other words, she expects the associate may give her some grief (especially if the customer secretly knows she was in the wrong), so she is prepared to dish it right back. 

Remember that scene in the movie Top Gun when one of the pilots says, “I’m going to guns!” An upset resident is often prepared to go to guns...so when an associate fires a round of snark, the resident is prepared to pull the trigger. 

Not the best way to diffuse a situation, huh?

When you’re genuinely warm and sincere with a customer, that can immediately diffuse things. I mean, how can someone argue with, “I’m so sorry. I see that we really fell short and I’d love to see what we can do to help you.”

Look for solutions

As I talked about earlier, associates often see these situations as battles to be won; so the search for solutions takes a back seat to putting the customer in his place. But the truth is, there are always solutions to be found aren’t there? 

Sure, sometimes the solutions are not what the customer wanted initially, or what associates were able to do initially...but there are solutions everywhere. You just have to be willing to look for them. 


What are your customer service "awesome" and "unawesome" stories?

keywords: customer service, resolving customer service complaints, bad customer service, customer service training, complaints, complaining customers, resolving complaints, rommel anacan, relationship difference, corporate training, keynote speaking, communication training, orange county training, multifamily housing training, good customer service tips
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Rommel Anacan

    I am a national speaker, trainer, and strategic consultant to companies and organizations. I'm also
    the president and founder of The Relationship Difference a professional and personal development company in Orange County, California.

    My passion is helping people succeed by helping them connect, communicate and engage with the people around them more effectively. 

    More about me and this blog here!

    FIRST TIME HERE?

    Most Read Posts

    • How to Lose a Customer in 10 Seconds
    • Break-Up! When Change is a Great Thing
    • The Second Button-Lessons From the Famous Seinfeld Episode
    • Why People Love Southwest Airlines
    • When Do You Take a Chance on Your Dreams?
    • Communicating in Social Media
    • It's a Wonderful Movie
    • Someone to Believe in Me
    • Can I Order Some Food First? Improving the Work Environment
    • Renew, Refresh and Restore!
    • Developing a Leadership Culture



    Archives

    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos from Jessa B.C., roland, Joits, Veronique Debord, a4gpa, Neon Tommy, Keith Allison, phoenixshade, ThinkGeoEnergy, psigrist, Tony Fischer Photography, Jeffrey Beall, permanently scatterbrained, tastybit, Chris Winters, jurvetson, DWallis, North Devon Council, gnuckx, fabbio, NicoleElocin, marragem, Andy M¢, Gage Skidmore, JohnSeb, zzpza, Luigi Rosa, Erin Costa, justinbaeder, Jeffrey Beall, Keith Allison, neil conway, devinStein, losol, wanderingone, Bludgeoner86, vasilemadalin, wjarrettc, paulhami, Shaun Greiner, DonkeyHotey