8 mins read
While running a business, unhappy customers are bound to appear from time to time.
As much as you would like to ensure that all of your customers are happy, it is important to prepare for the worst if things go wrong.
Having a process in place to ensure that unhappy customer’s problems can be solved is imperative to keeping up your reputation and ensuring that customers continue to return to you.
A customer’s recommendation is important, and just because they have encountered a problem with your business does not mean that they will not recommend you to other potential customers.
You can turn what was a negative experience into something positive if you handle the situation well, and this article will look at three ways in which you can deal with unhappy customers and leave them with a positive experience.
Listen To Customers – Communicate Openly And Honestly
It is important in the early stages of a customer complaint to listen carefully to their issue.
Make sure you fully understand what they are unhappy about and ensure that they are speaking to the person who is best equipped to deal with their problem.
With a hosted phone system, this can be done easily with call transferring, in a few simple clicks the customer can be put through to the best person or department to help with their issue.
When a customer is already unhappy, you do not want anything to come between you and the customer and a poor telephone connection will certainly get in the way of getting a resolution.
Investing in your telephone system is a great way to ensure smooth communications, so you can communicate with customers openly and honestly and do not run the risk of being interrupted.
If your hosted phone system loses connection, or something happens to your office premises, you can switch seamlessly between devices without dropping the call – so whatever happens and wherever you are you stay connected to your customers.
An unhappy customer wants to be listened to and ensuring that you have all the facilities you need so customers can make their voices heard is a crucial first step to resolving a customer concern and actually making this interaction into a positive outcome for both customer and business.
Follow Up With The Customer And Keep Detailed Records At Every Stage
Once you’ve listened to the customer carefully and understand what has gone wrong and what they need from you, it is time to investigate and take steps towards resolving the issue.
It is important that at this stage you ensure that you are keeping the customer informed at all times and that you keep detailed notes.
The notes help particularly if multiple staff members are dealing with the complaint, you do not want to antagonize the customer further with unnecessary phone calls so a note will make sure all of your staff are up to speed on the latest developments.
These notes can be securely stored with the customer’s account on Acefone’s easy to use online portal, where staff can pull up the information with just a few clicks.
Agents can pass on information here and keep records of interactions with that customer. They can also see where the complaint is up to and whether they need to follow up or investigate anything further.
This is an important way for you to cover yourself as a business if there are further queries from the customer – you can see exactly who has spoken to the customer and what information is shared.
Further to this, you can also access call recordings through the online portal, which is a great tool if there is some kind of dispute.
Following up with the customer is important, and you should ensure that you call the customer and keep them informed about the steps you are taking to help them.
This makes the customer feel included and gives them much more trust that you truly are looking into their concerns and that as a business you care about their custom.
Use Their Insights To Improve
Another important step is to use customer insights to improve your services in future. Once a customer complaint is settled to a satisfactory level, ensure that you take on board any feedback from the customer by asking them questions on how you could improve.
This shows as a business that you are dedicated to improving customer experience and the customer is less likely to leave as their voices have been heard.
Customer’s insights are key to growing as a company, and the valuable information a customer can give your business on how you operate gives you a unique opportunity to grow and develop your customer service strategy.
By giving customers a platform to speak openly with you, you not only gain these valuable insights but you can ensure that any unhappy customers are satisfied with your resolution.
Communication is key with unhappy customers, and if you invest in your communication and ensure that customers can contact you easily when they need you there is no reason why an unhappy customer cannot be changed into a happy and loyal customer.
By using these simple steps you can increase customer trust and ensure that unhappy customers become happy customers.
Handled correctly, an unhappy customer can become a great ambassador for your brand – if they share that they did have a problem but it was rectified effectively and your agents were on hand to help.
This can make other potential customers see that you are a business dedicated to helping customers and may be more likely to make a purchase from you.
Customers understand that things can go wrong, but the company’s reaction is key to their decision on whether to buy from you again.
If you would like to find out more about how a hosted phone system can help you elevate your customer service and deal effectively with unhappy customers, call our expert team on 1888-859-0450.
