Complaints handling: The seven pillars of wisdom
Matthew Hendy, Head of Product Development at Charter UK, describes seven key practices for successful complaints handling
Consumers' expectations of the way their complaints are handled are becoming more demanding. Instant communication means that 50% of consumers now expect complaints to be resolved within a single day. How can you rise to such a challenge?
1. Get your customers to complain!
Only 5% of customers who experience problems actually complain to the company – this can do vast damage to your business and your brand. If you can encourage them to voice their complaints and deal with them quickly and positively, then 90% of complainants can be turned into active promoters for your company. So, make it easy for your customers to complain – not by intentional poor service, but by providing the avenues for when things do go wrong.
2. Find out what the customer wants.
Once a complaint has been made, the way it is dealt with is crucial to customer satisfaction. Know what the customer wants to achieve – very few businesses ask. The Customer Care Alliance recently discovered that 49% of complainants wanted an apology, with only 19% seeking a refund.
3. Respond quickly.
Speedy resolutions to complaints can have a massive impact on customer satisfaction – the challenge you face is how to join up your business departments to make sure this happens. Technology can help greatly with this – Charter Continuum can improve visibility and tracking of complaints, while increasing customer satisfaction and avoiding the potential for large fines from the regulator.
4. Ownership and accountability.
If you can tell the customer who is looking after their complaint, it will give them instant confidence that you're going to do something about it. Technology can be used to tell the customer who is on the case, what process will be taken and how long it's going to take – music to their ears.
5. Keeping promises.
Unrealistic promises and those which need a group of people to be involved often end up being broken. Using the right software can make the complaint handling process task-orientated, enforced internally by automatic escalation alerts that flag potential problems in the handling chain. Managers can be given the power to re-route workloads if they see that tasks are outstanding. But the key to gaining customers' trust is to only make promises that can be kept!
6. Be proactive.
Customers who complain don't usually represent your total customer base. By proactively seeking feedback, you can get a much better picture of where you business can be improved, by drawing out complaints (and positive comments!) that haven't yet arisen.
7. Evidence what you've done!
Customer retention reports will record steps taken to fix customer problems and their root causes, as well as rates of satisfaction and retention. These reports will ensure that senior executives buy in to the process, resulting in more investment in the customer service function.
