Turning Customer Complaints Into Positive Outcomes

When was the last time you made a customer complaint? How did your provider respond? Did you feel heard, or like ‘just another customer’?

If it was the former, you likely appreciated the time taken to support you. If it was the latter, maybe you felt let down, like the company didn’t care and, therefore, didn’t deserve your custom.

Both scenarios describe—at a basic level—the right and wrong ways to handle a customer complaint. As customers and intuitive human beings, we often sense when someone’s intentions are genuine. So, if we feel like a business we pay for isn’t supporting us, we’re left with a bad taste.

The first step to avoiding this is actively listening to your customers. In doing so, we can show empathy and an investment in how the problem impacts their lives. As a result, they feel understood and are more likely to trust us going forward.

As businesses, we want to deliver a seamless, pain-free experience for our customers every time. However, in certain instances, we may feel a complaint isn’t our fault. In others, a complaint may catch us off guard, leading to defensiveness. None of these reactions benefit the most important person: the customer.

In reality, most customers who make a complaint simply want their problems acknowledged. And by taking ownership of their issues, we can validate their experiences, and hopefully reduce the tension or animosity they feel.

Remember - before they picked up the phone with you, they likely felt alone with their problem. However, after speaking to you, having their problem acknowledged and receiving a commitment that you’ll investigate it - you’re reducing their burden and giving them a reason to trust your business.

Successful complaint resolution relies on communication. From the moment you take ownership of their issue, your customer is waiting to hear how you’ll resolve it. They’re looking for confirmation that, although something went wrong, you can help them, and therefore justifying their faith in you as a provider.

If you can’t offer a resolution on the spot, manage their expectations. Give them the most accurate time scale possible; if you can’t, check in regularly and update them on your progress. This shows them you’re actively pursuing the issue rather than keeping them in the dark. 

VoIP systems like T2K’s Gamma Horizon can even set reminders or automate communication, allowing you to contact customers at specific times to keep them in the loop. Remember though, it’s not the investigation itself, but the communication that’s likely to retain your customer's trust.

Explaining your findings requires transparency, while avoiding jargon or business speak. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. They don’t understand the internal workings of your business;  so keep your explanation clear and concise, while ensuring you don’t leave out key information. 

Taking the time to do this lets customers know you conducted a detailed investigation and are invested in the outcome. It may also clear up any confusion they experienced when they started the complaints process. 

Don’t forget to leave plenty of room for questions and feedback. Before reaching out, consider the questions your customer might ask. The more insight you can offer, the better.

This is where you close the communication loop. Be sure to talk them through the complaints journey they’ve experienced, explaining how you came to your resolution and why. And if you’ve maintained communication, your customer will likely understand the steps you’ve taken. They may even be grateful that you’ve kept in touch, while managing their expectations responsibly. 

What if they’re not happy?

If your customer isn’t satisfied, listen to their concerns and acknowledge how they feel. At this point, you should also consider whether their expectations are reasonable, and can be achieved with the resources available to you.

Some outcomes may require you to revisit your initial investigation. Was anything missed? Is there an area that you didn’t think to investigate? 

When you’re confident you’ve exhausted all obvious avenues, it may be time to explore alternative solutions. This could mean going outside your standard complaints processes to find a compromise that works for everyone. Again, communication is essential to ensure your customer doesn’t feel pushed aside.

If your business experiences a high volume of a specific complaint type, there’s probably a reason for it. And though receiving complaints doesn’t initially feel good, they can offer valuable information to help prevent similar issues from happening in the future.

To help you collect this information, you can break it down into categories like:

• Business area that the complaint referred to
• Specific problem reported in the complaint
• If it impacts a particular type of customer
• When the complaint occurred

By categorising complaint data, you can analyse it and look for trends to support future occurrences. For accuracy, it may be worth investing in a data analytics tool. Tools like these group and analyse data quickly, saving you time and offering insights when needed.

You may also benefit from the built-in data analytics included with most VoIP systems. These tools pull data from various sources, including call recordings and customer information stored in databases like CRMs (many of which can be integrated with your VoIP system). By gathering and categorising this data, you can quickly identify the root cause of complaints. 

Progress comes when we learn from our mistakes. Your business's handling of complaints is a great example of this, giving you tangible data and insights that allow everyone in your business to learn and grow.

Conducting regular analysis of customer complaints shows what didn’t work in the past, and how to approach similar issues going forward. By building this into your complaints process, you can deliver smoother resolutions for future complaints.

Remember that no two complaints are the same. While they may share similar causes, each one represents a customer who has invested in your services to solve a problem. Here, negative feedback is an opportunity to restore trust and better understand their needs. As a result, you can prevent similar issues, while delivering better service for your existing and future customers.

If you’d like to learn how VoIP can help you strengthen your complaints process, contact T2K today.