What is a customer complaint?
A customer complaint is the manifestation of customer dissatisfaction . Your product and/or service, or the shopping experience does not meet your customer's expectations and the latter expects you to offer them a solution, an alternative, to allow them to go from "not happy" to "happy". A complaint must be handled if you want to keep your customer and prevent them from spreading their dissatisfaction to those around them.
To learn more about customer complaints, let's start by america cell phone number list going over the different ways your customer can communicate their dissatisfaction.
The different forms of complaints
Your customer can express their dissatisfaction to you in different ways. Here is a non-exhaustive list of possible types of complaints.
A. Orally
Oral communication is the simplest and most direct way for a customer to make a complaint to you. A defective product, a service that does not meet expectations, in short, the customer will come to your headquarters or directly to the store to explain in detail what is wrong.
This is why it is recommended to have a department or at least one dedicated person in your team to handle dissatisfied customers.
Why? Because a dissatisfied customer can have 2 faces:
the understanding customer who will calmly explain the problem and listen to your solutions
the aggressive customer who will rant loudly about his dissatisfaction in front of you, but also your other customers. You must therefore know how to manage the different profiles with diplomacy and, above all, have the answers and solutions to the problems encountered by your customers.
B. By phone
The most commonly used method to communicate a complaint is by telephone. It allows your dissatisfied customer to have a quick answer to their questions without having to travel. In order to best handle customer complaints, we recommend that you have a dedicated telephone number or set up a call dispatch dedicated to complaints.
In fact, this allows you to avoid mobilizing a salesperson who will no longer be available at the time to process quote or purchase requests and thus direct your customer to a competent person in customer service.
C. By mail
Mail is the least used method, but it still exists. It allows your customer to have a written record of their complaint.
This method is generally used in cases where the dispute is significant and proof of the claim may be requested. In this case, however, the customer must be patient, as he will have to wait longer to receive a response to his dissatisfaction.
D. Online (social networks, website, reviews)
If you have a website, a Google My Business profile or social networks for your business, know that your customers will not hesitate to share their complaints with you online!
So stay connected and check your reviews or inboxes to be able to respond to your customers on time and not damage your e-reputation .