Resolving Customer Complaints

Resolving Customer Complaints
We’ve all read loads of articles, books and attended numerous seminars on how to deliver great customer service but we rarely learn how to resolve customer differences when things go wrong.

The internet, in some ways, has shielded us from receiving verbal customer complaints. Most businesses are so automated that even providing feedback is done by way of an online form or survey or a press 3 on your dial pad and leave a message after the tone type scenario.

It can be easy to hit “I’m offline” status button and hope angry customers will just go away. But they don’t they just get angrier and angrier and tell everyone and anyone (mostly online) who are prepared to listen. Angry customers have a louder voice than ever before thanks to social media and the internet.

I believe that resolving customer complaints should form part of our overall customer service strategy. Research tells us that when a customer receives bad service they tell 10 others where as when they receive good service they only tell 3.  And now with social media playing such a significant role in the way we communicate you can 10 x how many people will hear about bad service they receive.

A perfect example of this is when I gave Telstra (Australia’s largest telecommunications organisation) a spray on Facebook last month; I got over 100 other people commenting on the terrible service they’d also received from Telstra! What is this doing to their brand and reputation??

So with this being said, it is imperative you know how to resolve and disarm irate and angry customers. Here is a simple method I use; it’s called the C.A.R.P. System.

The CARP system is simply a way to remind you about the four major pieces of defusing hostility. It is what we call an umbrella strategy. The four parts are:

X

X

X

X

Control
When you communicate with an irate customer, they will often “take the floor”, refusing to listen to you. Often, they will take a verbally attacking position, peppering you with questions, or insults, and not letting you get a word in edgewise. This is particularly pronounced on the phone. Some have characterised the behaviour of the irate person as “ranting”.

Your first goal in the defusing process is to gain control over the interaction. You need to get the person to the point where they are willing to stop talking and listen. If they don’t stop their “rant”, then there is not much chance of any positive outcome.

Acknowledge
Remember it is important that the angry customer see that you understand his/her emotional state, and the situation. So, when we talk about acknowledging, we are talking about two major techniques, empathy and active listening. The key point here is that a person’s anger will tend to diminish if the person feels you understand them.

Refocus
When a customer is angry, or becomes angry, that anger interferes with your ability to work with the customer quickly and effectively. The control and acknowledge components are designed to calm the person down somewhat. Refocusing involves making the transition from dealing with emotions to dealing with the actual problem. Note the sequence. We do not attempt to deal with the problem until we have dealt with the feelings first. This is VERY important.

Problem Solve
Before we move to problem-solving, we look to see that the person is becoming more cooperative, less emotional, and more rational. Refocusing provides the transition to “getting down to business”. Problem-solving involves actions like getting and giving information, suggesting possibilities and appearing helpful, offering choices as available, agreeing on a course of action, and following through.

If you can turn an angry customer around, they will be your biggest advocates in the future! Be transparent and share your stories online, use the experience as a great testimonial of how you do business and that there is a human behind the computer monitor that really cares!

Until next week, you remember to keep struttin your stuff!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb!

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