A Breath of Fresh Air?
“I’m so sorry to hear about your recent poor service with us. We normally pride ourselves on our five-star service, but we have been busier than usual, and this has led to inevitable delays as I’m sure you’ll understand. Of course, if you had caught us at a quieter time, blah do blah di blah.”
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses
Have you heard that recently because I certainly have.
It’s where the poor customer service experience I have received has been belittled and makes me feel that it hasn’t been treated seriously. That not only annoys but is also likely to come out in various conversations I have with my large network of people. Nobody wants to feel they have been dismissed with a brush off.
The chances are that if you’ve taken the time to complain to a service company, there’s something you’re unhappy about that has wasted your time, money, or both. Receiving a single paragraph, generic reply is unlikely to placate your anger and can even turn the heat under your collar a notch or two
You can see that the supplier is blaming their shortcomings on external factors, such as a busy time or lack of appropriate staff. They are trying to tell you that experience you’ve had has been the exception and it doesn’t happen that often, or so they think. They have failed to acknowledge that in most cases, the internal systems they have in place are inadequate to handle those external circumstances. Another issue here is that if the leaders of the business don’t take complaints seriously, then that attitude will pass down through the organisation and neither will their employees.
However, us British don’t help to solve the problem either. We are pretty lame at complaining. If you don’t believe me, just look at our friends across the water in both directions. The Americans and French have a very healthy attitude when it comes to complaining.
The British justify this by ‘not wanting to rock the boat’ or not wanting to show up as being intolerant. However, if we don’t complain, how can we expect the supplier to know of the problems they may have in their organisation, let alone changing them for the better. Of course, we can vote with our feet as many of us do but sometimes the management of that company need to be shaken out of their slumber and realise that prospects and customers alike are walking away from their business and the reasons behind their desertion.
The Importance Of Taking Customer Complaints Seriously
If you are offering a service, whatever that may be, any complaint must be taken seriously, the implications thought through and possible improvements need to be implemented. It should never be dismissed with the thought that it this only happens from time to time. Every complaint needs to be worked through.
How about this as a ROUTE that helps you not only deal with a complaint but also to learn from it, with a view to eliminating similar problems happening again:
Research the circumstances at the time of the complaint. What was happening at the time, that was apparently out of the ordinary?
Understand the nature of the complaint. What were the customers’ expectations, had they been set correctly and how well were the communication channels working?
Observe and establish who were involved, both the customers and the individuals and teams. Were there different people involved from the usual team or people missing from the team?
Think through the implications of the complaint. How will the customer’s poor opinion of the service affect your business?
Examine ways that this could be avoided in the future. What step (or more likely steps) need to be implemented to stop this happening again?
See Customer Complaints As A Way Of Learning About How To Improve Your Business
Following this ROUTE methodology means that not only can you learn from complaints, but you can also inform the person whose had the bad experience the steps you are taking to first address it, then learn from it and finally make improvements, so to make it unlikely they will happen again.
That conveys the message that not only have you read or listened to their complaint but also that you’ve taken that seriously enough to do something about it. You have valued their opinion. Instead of your organisation losing credibility with the customer or prospect, following this process could give you a good opportunity to enhance your reputation.
Firstly, you’d be replying positively to those people who have complained to show them that you really do care about them and secondly, you would be informing them of the possible action and improvement that may be arise from their complaint. You will be demonstrating to them that you have taken their complaint seriously.
Wouldn’t that be a breath of fresh air?
Mark/January 2023