No matter how good your product or service is sooner or later you’ll face an angry customer. Sometimes it will be your fault it, sometimes it won’t.
So how should you handle their complaint?
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Say Sorry - It doesn’t matter if you are in the wrong or not, just saying sorry can go a long way to pacifying an upset client. If you believe it’s not your fault then by all means don’t apologise for the problem, instead apologise for the fact that they are not happy with the product or service. For example “I’m sorry to hear that you’re not satisfied with our service”.
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Ask For An Explanation - Ask them to repeat the problem(s). No matter what they say don’t answer back, now is the time to listen carefully and take notes. When they have finished read your notes back to them and check you have correctly documented their complaint. By now most people will have “gotten it off their chest” and will start to calm down.
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Make It Right - Take each of the issues you’ve noted in turn and resolve them, where there’s an obvious solution (there’s a fly in my soup - we’ll get you a new soup) just do it. Where the solution is not so simple (you’re hosting a wedding and you print the couples names incorrectly on the menus but it’s not spotted until all the guests and the happy couple have seen it and it’s too late to change), firstly say sorry. Then offer the customer something as compensation. If the customer is not happy with your offer, or you can’t think of a suitable offer, ask the customer what they would like you to do to resolve the situation. If what they ask for is unreasonable (the entire wedding for free) smile and explain that you understand their disappointment but you can only offer them a solution that is fair to both of you. If needs be ask if they truly believe their suggestion is reasonable.
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Make Sure They Are Happy - If you’ve listened to their complaints and dealt with them, make sure they are happy with the resolution you have agreed with them.
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Follow Through - Make sure you follow through on the actions you agree to take.
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Offer Them A Reason To Come Back - Even after resolving all the issues it’s worth going that step further and offering them a good reason to use you again, for example a discount on their next purchase.
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Improve - Evaluate how you can improve your business so you don’t get the same complaint again, then make the change.
What you should never do is:
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Respond in kind to aggressive or abusive behaviour, if they shout, don’t shout back. No matter what they do, try to stay calm. If they continue to be abusive ask them to refrain and refuse to deal with them until they calm down.
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Blame them if it’s clearly your fault.
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Lie.
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Ignore them.
Remember how you handle it however can have a huge impact on the success of your business. If you’re forever dealing with upset customer in a confrontational way you’ll soon lose interest in the business and the business will gain a bad reputation. On the other hand a customer who complains but then has their complaint dealt with promptly and in a fair manner will often become a regular customer and an advocate for your business.
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
Great Article, I like the fact that you have been very specific with the responses rather than resorting to the tired old cliches that are far too often served up to service teams. With your permission I will link to this excellent posting from my site.
Lindsay,
Thanks, you’re welcome to link to anything you like.
I’m really tempted to write a post on how to complain, something Brits are particularly bad at…
[...] Sooner or later it happens to us all. Regardless of how much we do to serve each customer perfectly, things do go wrong, sometimes little things, and on really bad days, really bad things. And, unless you and each member of your service team have a very specific and comprehensive response strategy, the resulting situation can get totally out of hand and unnecessarily embarrass the customer, de-motivate your entire service team, other customers present, and worse, become a topic of conversation that spreads throughout your community like a killer virus. It’s simply not enough to merely trot out the old “The customer is always right” clichés, then expect your team to diffuse the wrath of a customer who feels they have just cause to have their complaint heard and acted upon. The customer is NOT always right, in fact some are downright unreasonable, you know it, your team know it, so, stop using meaningless clichés as your sole line of defense. The fact is, some customers have legitimate reasons to complain and some customers with the aid of a little too much of the liquid refreshments you have so willingly sold them, become a complete pain in the areas we don’t mention in polite company. The Customer is NOT always right, However if you and your team wish to prosper. The customer must at the very least BE SATISFIED! To achieve this sometimes difficult objective, I strongly suggest you read an article recently posted on John Cricket’s excellent: Business Opportunities and Ideas website. In his article John offers very specific solutions to this problem and I suggest you make them the key topic of your next weekly team meeting. [...]
Number 1 really works and I guess that’s why you put it there!
Absolutely, it’s cheap, simple and effective, yet often isn’t done.
Wow that was a nice post. I came here from BlueJar’s writing contest so I’ll read the other posts and see if I should put yours up as one of the top ones.
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
Nice article. You’re deffinately on my short list for the Blue Jar contest.
Great entry for the writing project. I think this post will make my top 3.
My EX-hairdresser desperately needs to read this post.
Ad Tracker & Shelia,
Many thanks. I hope the new hair dresser is better!
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John is excellent for every business person to know. Many of us at some point will run into an angry or irate customer. Follow some of these tips and that steam may disappear. [...]
Great advice. It doesn’t even have to be just for customers. Any situation where someone is angry, these simple steps will work great. As you say, just listening and letting them get it off their chest is a great idea.
[...] How to Deal With Angry Customers - Gurus should take heed. [...]
MDB,
Thanks, true it’s a good approach to any confrontational situation.
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
Excellent guidelines on the subject, John. It should be made essential reading for any business. I can think of lots of service companies here in Singapore that should learn more about this.
YC,
Thanks, feel free to point them to the blog
I’d sure try - but would probably have better luck getting them to smile in the first place
[...] Anyway here are my 3 favourite entries from the list. Here’s mine as well: “3 Ways On How To Create A Buzz With Social Web Widgets I.E MyBlogLog And Blogrush”. I would have voted for myself if I thought that someone else would vote for me to give me even the slightest chance of winning. How To Deal With Angry Customers by John How-To Guide: Increasing Your Sphere of Influence by Steve Belt How To Track New RSS Subscribers Google Analytics in 3 Easy Steps by Rhys [...]
Great post, I especially like #3 - being reasonable and “ask if they truly believe their suggestion is reasonable” if the customer continues to pose an unreasonable request.
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] John Crickett presents How To Deal With Angry Customers posted at Business Opportunities And Ideas. [...]
Top 3 Picks for the blueJAR.com Group Writing Project…
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When I wrote my post Contains Zero Trans Fat - Truth or Creative Advertising?, I mentioned that I had entered it into the “How To” group writing proje…
Good points here.
Although I will say that being apologetic can backfire.
I once dealt with a client who was angry at me for no fault of my own. But the more I tried to placate him, the more self-righteous and agggresive he became.
I learned that while most people will respond in kind if you are gentle and reasonable, a bully will just be invigorated by your backing down and go in harder.
Fact is, I saw some signs that this guy was a bit of a worry early on yet didn’t heed them. Won’t make that mistake again if I can help it.
I’ve seen customers behave this way too and I’d still apologise “I’m sorry you are not happy” but at the same time you need to remain firm and stand your ground on a reasonable response to their complaint.
[...] How To Deal With Angry Customers by John [...]
[...] I know it isn’t your fault, but likely someone was at fault. You’re not apologizing for what you did wrong, but apologizing on behalf of another employee or on behalf of the company. This can be as simple as saying, “I’m sorry you’re having trouble, let’s see what we can do to get it resolved.” John Crickett says, “It doesn’t matter if you are in the wrong or not, just saying sorry can go a long way to pacifying an upset client. If you believe it’s not your fault then by all means don’t apologise for the problem, instead apologise for the fact that they are not happy with the product or service.” [...]
I think that there is one important piece missing in your advice on Dealing with Angry Customers. One of the first things you need to do is ACKNOWLEDGE HOW THEY ARE FEELING. For example, if someone is obviously upset, they will continue on with their rant until they feel they have been heard. It is often even more important for them to be acknowledged than to have their problem solved or product replaced. It can be as simple as saying, “I can see that you are really annoyed (upset, frustrated, etc.) about this”.
In the Hosting Industry we get this a lot and the best thing to do is just deal with the client peacefully.