1.

Stay Calm

It might be extremely difficult to do, you must stay calm

when handling a customer complaint. This can be hard,
especially since your business is probably a point of
immense pride for you. But don’t take the complaint
personally; it’s not a personal attack. Often, a customer
complaint will highlight an area that you can improve upon
within your business.

Not only that, but getting upset, losing your cool, or yelling
at a customer is never a good thing. You are more likely to
make good progress and satisfy your customer’s needs if
you approach the problem with a calm state of mind.

2. Listen
Frequently, if a customer comes to you with a problem, it
means that they want to be heard. Even if the complaint
seems trivial to you, it clearly has some significance to them
because they are taking their time to reach out to you.

Sometimes people indeed complain just because they are

having a bad day, but keep in mind that we all have bad days
and you never know what is going on in that person’s life.

Active listening techniques can, and should, be used with

your customers all the time. Don’t assume that you know
what the customer wants or needs, and don’t dismiss them
as trivial either. Hear them out and pay close attention to
what they’re saying. When frustrated, people can have
difficulty expressing their concerns or what they need from
you to make them happy. Allowing your customer to talk will
give him or her time to calm down. Often, you can resolve an
issue just by listening to your customers and allowing them
to vent.

3. Be Kind
In most instances, you can diffuse anger and frustration by
remaining kind and understanding. You can tell your
customer straight away that you appreciate them reaching
out about their concerns and that you want to understand
exactly how they are feeling. A statement such as this from
the get-go lets your customer know that you truly care and
that you are ready to listen. When a customer knows that
you truly care, you are well on your way to finding a
reasonable resolution to the customer complaint.

4. Acknowledge the Issue

After you’ve heard them out, acknowledge the problem and
repeat it back to the customer. Paraphrasing what your
customer has said and repeating it back to them lets them
know that you listened and that you understand what the
problem is.
Acknowledging the problem does not mean that you agree
with what the customer has to say, it just means that you
understand them and respect where they are coming from.
You can say things like, “I understand this must be very
frustrating for you,” or, “If I understand you correctly…” then
follow up with the paraphrased rendition of the complaint.

5. Apologize and Thank Them

It may feel difficult, but swallowing your pride and

apologizing for your customer’s poor experience will put you
miles ahead of the game. As with acknowledgment,
apologizing does not mean that you agree with the
customer, nor are you taking the blame.

It may seem counterintuitive, but thanking your customer for

reaching out with their issue will also show that you’re
always trying to improve your business. It demonstrates that
you understand where they are coming from and that you
are ready to resolve the problem for them.

6. Ask Questions
After you’ve listened to your customer’s complaint and the
individual has had a chance to calm down, it’s your turn to
take the initiative and get all the facts. Now is the time that
you can calmly start asking questions for clarification. Start
a genuine conversation with your customer. Between being
kind, listening, acknowledging, and apologizing, you will
have started gaining your customer’s trust.

However, it is imperative that you do not ask questions that

your customer has already answered. Making them repeat
themselves can heighten emotions again and make your
customer feel like you weren’t listening in the first place.

7. Make It Speedy
Once you’ve gathered all of the information you need, now is
your chance to find a solution that makes everyone happy,
especially your customer. The faster you find a reasonable
solution that everyone can agree on, the happier your
customer will be and you get to breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s important to be flexible here. While it’s important to

follow your company protocols and guidelines, it’s also
important to be able to go the extra mile for your customers.
Never offer a solution that you can’t follow through on, as
that will only set you back. Perhaps offering a small gift card
or a discount on future purchases will be enough to assuage
the situation. You might also consider replacing the item for
free or upgrading their future purchase or membership.

When trying to find a solution, give your employees enough

freedom to make judgment calls independently. Passing an
upset customer up a chain of command may only make the
situation worse, so it’s important to avoid it when possible.
8. Document Their Responses
Complaints often include hidden opportunities for improving
your product or service. Documenting them can help you
identify flaws, issues, and trends. It could be a product
glitch that you need to immediately address. Or maybe it’s a
campaign-specific complaint that your marketing
department can look into. Whatever the case, make sure to
record all customer complaints for future use.

With the complaints documented, you can bring them up in

monthly and annual meetings to seek advice on how to
tackle the issue.

9. Follow Up
Contacting your angry customer after finding a solution for
them might be the last thing you want to do, but after all
that hard work, following up with your customer is the icing
on the cake for them. It lets them know that their concerns
are at the top of your mind, and it’s another way to show
that you care.

During this follow-up, apologize again and make sure you’ve

taken care of everything they needed. At this point, if the
customer is happy, there’s a really good chance that they
will be returning to you for your services and that they will
tell their friends and family about you and how good your
customer service is.

10. Come Out from Behind the Screen

Just because the internet has made it easier to provide
customer service virtually doesn’t mean you should always
interact via live chat or email. If you’re offering a service –
such as web development, copywriting, or social media
consultancy – it can pay to have a video call with your
customers.
Although it doesn’t have the same effect as an actual face-
to-face conversation, video conferencing still allows you to
convey emotions and non-verbal cues. This is a nice way to
show that you really intend to help out and solve the
experience problem that led to the complaint.

You can attach a face to conversations easily enough with

video conferencing apps like Zoom or Skype.

Common Customer Complaints (and How to

Solve Them)

Customer complaints are usually rooted in legitimate

problems. Even if you feel like you’ve done everything right
the first time, you should always take every customer
complaint seriously. Since we’ve gone over tips on how to
handle customer complaints, let’s go ahead and take a look
at the most common customer complaints and how to solve
them.

Product is out of stock or on backorder

It’s frustrating when you’re patiently waiting for a product to
arrive on the shelves, only to be disappointed over and over
again when it never shows up in stock. Customers who are
anxiously awaiting a specific product may be calling you or
emailing you over and over again to find out when or if you’ll
restock the item.

Even though you may not know when you will have the
product available again, you can help satisfy your angry
customer’s impatience by telling them that you will let them
know when you get it in. Make sure you actually follow
through with your promise, though.

Pro tip: If you’re using Shopify to run your business, you can
ask customers to subscribe for stock updates. Apps
like Notifications make it a breeze to notify customers
about stock level changes, individual purchases, and more.

Lack of follow-through

Suppose you’ve promised your customer something and

never get around to it. They call or email you and you never
respond. Sometimes all it takes is one ignored message or
email and you suddenly have an angry customer.

You can avoid this by staying on top of your emails and

messages regularly, but no matter how on top of things you
are, there’s always the chance that something or someone
will slip through the cracks and be forgotten. We are all
human after all.

If this happens to you, own up to your mistake and don’t lie

about it. Apologize, then handle the issue right then and
there. Try to avoid putting the problem off any longer. Then
make sure to follow up with them a few days later after
you’ve resolved the problem.
Customer service issues
It’s understandable for a customer to become frustrated
when your customer service representatives don’t know the
ins and outs of your products or services, if your employees
act disinterested, or if your customers are straight-up
ignored. If you carry a product or offer a service, both you
and your employees are expected to be the experts. When
customers have questions that can’t be answered or if they
can’t find someone to answer their questions, you’ve got a
problem.

Make sure your employees are well-acquainted with your

products and services, as well as trained in customer
service. If the above does happen to you, you can assure
your customer that customer service reps are receiving
training. Plus, offer to send additional information about
the product. And be sure to address these kinds of issues
with the employee as well.

Broken or defective product

It’s expected that a customer would complain if a product

breaks or if the service does not meet their expectation. If
you’re not the product manufacturer, then this may not be
your fault, but the customer might blame you for it anyway.
Or, due to misunderstanding how to use the product, they
simply have a lack of knowledge.

You can handle this by replacing or refunding the

dysfunctional product. Find out what the customer needs,
then help them accomplish that with the chosen item or
service. Or educate the customer if there’s a lack of
understanding of how the product or service
works. Explainer videos work great for this purpose.

Be proactive
With the many social channels and forums available on the
internet, there are a lot of opportunities and platforms for
customers to share feedback on.

Even if they do not complain directly to you, you can still

find reviews and complaints online that you can address.
Sometimes, if left alone, these complaints can snowball and
turn into a much bigger issue, so it’s important to be
proactive and address these as quickly as possible.

Remember that it’s okay to stand up for yourself

People complain. We all do it, but if a situation gets out of

hand and if the customer is belligerent or threatening you
with bodily harm,you have every right to have them removed
from the premises or discontinue conversation with them.
The old adage “The customer is always right” is not 100
percent true in today’s customer service realm. You do not
have to put up with being called names or being
threatened.

Handling customer complaints is not fun for most of us, but

if done in a warm, professional manner, chances are both
you and your customer will be satisfied with the outcome,
and you’ll end up with a life-long customer.

To summarize, here are ten steps you can take to effectively

resolve customer complaints:

1. Stay calm – Approach the problem with a peaceful

state of mind sets the foundation for effective
complaint handling.
2. Listen – Often, paying attention to what customers are
saying will help you understand the issue at hand.
3. Be kind – Be kind and understanding. It will help you
diffuse anger and frustration.
4. Acknowledge the issue – Reiterate the complaint to
demonstrate that you understood the customer’s pain
point and respect them for connecting with you.
5. Apologize and thank them – Swallowing your ego and
apologizing for the poor experience can help you gain a
competitive edge.
6. Ask questions – Start a conversation by calmly asking
customers questions for gathering facts and taking the
initiative.
7. Make it speedy – Come up with a quick resolution and
only promise something that you can follow up on to
make customers happy.
8. Document their responses – Document every complaint
so that you and your team can review them later to
identify issues, opportunities, and trends.
9. Follow up – After coming up with a resolution, reach
out to customers to let them know that their
satisfaction is your top priority and apologize again for
the negative experience.
10. Come out from behind the screen – Use web
conferencing tools to have a video call with the
customers so that they know you care.