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A guide to customer complaints and how to handle them

Customer complaints can help make your business better. Here are some steps for handling them in an impactful way.

Published February 10, 2020
Last updated March 12, 2022

No matter how hard you work to deliver loftier-quality products and amazing customer service, unhappy customers are inevitable. No concern can completely skirt the reality of customer complaints.

But for companies that know how to handle consumer complaints, these problems can become more than of an opportunity than a liability. That might sound counterintuitive—how can a complaint exist seen as annihilation other than a bad matter?

When handled with care and empathy, a complaint is a chance to strengthen your relationship with a customer and improve your product or service. The central is beingness able to assess and resolve consumer complaints efficiently and effectively.

What are customer complaints?

Customer complaints are pieces of negative feedback almost a company'due south product, service, or support feel. They often occur when customer expectations aren't met. Consumers may complain when they receive the incorrect production size, wait on concord for hours, experience technical difficulties, and numerous other reasons.

This blazon of customer feedback is commonly communicated straight to the business, either in an email to the back up team, a survey, or a feedback course. Simply sometimes, customers will express their dissatisfaction in public channels such as social media, customs forums, and online review sites.

Why consumer complaints are good for business

Customers don't mutter just to make your company look bad—they desire you to reply with a solution. If you lot handle the feedback well, y'all tin plough a negative situation into a positive one.

When customers bring issues to your attending, they wait you to swing into action immediately. A prompt response can prevent a slightly dissatisfied customer from becoming an indignant customer who leaves you for a competitor.

"Customer complaints are the biggest opportunity a concern has to repair a fractured human relationship with a customer," says Jonathan Brummel, manager of enterprise back up at Zendesk.

"Customer complaints are the biggest opportunity a concern has to repair a fractured relationship with a customer."Jonathan Brummel, managing director of enterprise support at Zendesk

If you don't address consumer complaints, it can brand the state of affairs much worse. I angry client's complaint tin be amplified and influence the opinions of many others. Research shows that almost 9 in 10 customers read online reviews of local businesses. Imagine a prospect not doing business organisation with you considering of negative reviews you left unattended. You should ever admit complaints and practice your best to correct the situation.

For example, when a customer took to Twitter to complain nearly the bad service they received, the Instacart support team was quick to jump in and resolve the problem.

Prototype source

Listening to client complaints is integral to expert customer service. Plus, information technology can help you improve your products or services. A request for a new feature, for instance, can enable y'all to better serve your customers.

"Customer complaints are great for business intelligence," says Brummel. "They can help uncover a gap in your system or process and let you to gear up it, or they can help yous to look at your production in a new way. With this valuable information, you can share those insights across teams and bulldoze product innovation."

viii types of customer complaints

Here are eight client complaint examples and what you can do to accost them.

i. Long wait times

By the time a customer calls you with a complaint, they're already feeling frustrated. So putting them on agree for a long time makes the trouble worse. According to the Zendesk Customer Feel Trends Report, nearly sixty per centum of customers said being left on hold is their least favorite part of a service interaction.

Long look times could mean the volume is too high for your client service team to handle. Take a look at the peaks and valleys in contact center demand, and effort to staff those times to friction match. Yous may as well be able to deflect some customer service inquiries by including self-support options where customers can detect answers to their questions. Customers often prefer to resolve problems themselves, so it's a win-win.

2. Inability to speak with a human

Automated telephone systems can help triage tickets for your staff and answer mutual customer questions. Just when a caller gets stuck in a loop without any mode to talk to a alive rep, they go irritated.

Offering direct support on various channels—phone, messaging apps, live chat, and e-mail. With the right omnichannel customer service software, agents can easily switch between channels without losing customer context. For example, if a customer reaches out to your support squad on Facebook Messenger but so wants to speak with someone on the phone, an omnichannel arroyo ensures your agents can keep the conversation going seamlessly.

3. Needing to repeat information

Customers don't desire to recount their problems to reps over and over again. This can happen when they're transferred between agents or when your agents can't access the customer details they need to provide better support. Either style, the result is the aforementioned: When customers have to echo themselves multiple times, they get frustrated.

Customer service software, like Zendesk, can remove this hurting point from the process. The correct tech stack tin can connect your agents with the information they need to effectively help a customer—no repetition required. Agents can come across complete customer profiles, like the i beneath, so they can resolve issues faster.

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4. Unfriendly support agents

Over 30 percent of consumers say friendly back up agents are key to a good customer feel. When your customer service team is kind and empathetic, they tin can brighten upward someone's mean solar day and build a improve reputation for your brand. But when they don't take these necessary soft skills for the chore, information technology leaves a bad impression on buyers. And when a customer is already upset, an unfriendly amanuensis only escalates the situation.

You'll want to solve this customer service complaint proactively. Rent empathetic agents, and provide empathy training for existing squad members.

A proficient service recovery program can likewise help remedy angry customers subsequently the fact. For instance, Birchbox agents are empowered to follow upwards with customers who rated their initial interaction poorly.

5. Insufficient agent knowledge

A lack of customer information is usually a back-end trouble. Customer service agents need quality technology to effectively access, rails, and update the data they need every bit before long as they need it. When teams don't take the right ticketing system and internal processes in place, customers are often left waiting on concur or transferred between departments.

An automated ticketing system connects customer information across channels. With this tool, agents can seamlessly piece of work together to solve problems and come across customer demands.

half dozen. Inconvenient customer service hours

Many customers expect to reach support teams when an issue comes up—and to get an answer fast. Co-ordinate to the Sprout Social Index, 40 per centum of consumers expect a response from businesses inside an hour, while 79 percent expect a reply within the first 24 hours.

This complaint is mutual for companies that don't provide support on the weekends and for global organizations that offering customer service that'southward cogitating of just a unmarried fourth dimension zone.

An AI chatbot is a smashing way to expand your customer support hours. When agents are off the clock, a bot can handle the repetitive, basic queries that come in. Chatbots tin as well capture preliminary customer information and create tickets for agents to address when they're back at their desks.

Global companies may also want to endeavour a follow-the-lord's day model, a type of workflow in which customer issues can be handled by and passed between offices in dissimilar time zones. This tin aid increase responsiveness and reduce wait times.

seven. Difficulty finding relevant information online

Customers want to take care of bug themselves: 70 percent say they expect a business to have a self-service portal available to them. Yet only a tertiary of companies offering some form of customer self-service—whether through a help center, chatbots, or an FAQ folio.

A stellar knowledge management organization is the best way to handle this complaint. But edifice a knowledge base or online customs is only the start stride. Customers likewise complain when self-service resource are out of engagement, so you'll want to have a plan for refreshing your online content. An AI-powered cognition base tin can flag outdated articles and recommend new articles to write.

8. Lack of support channels

Customers want to reach companies on the channels of their choice. According to our Customer Experience Trends Study, 40 percent of consumers desire to connect with businesses over their favorite channels. And 93 pct will spend more than with companies that offering their preferred option to achieve client service. Then if you offer support on only ane channel, customers are likely to complain, especially if it's a channel that'southward inconvenient for them.

Ask yourself: What channels do your customers spend nigh of their time on? You may observe that it's messaging. Our study revealed that consumers are increasingly turning to social messaging apps to contact companies. Inquiries over WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and others jumped 36 percent terminal year—higher than any other aqueduct.

How to handle customer complaints: 10 strategies that work every time

1. Make answers piece of cake to detect
2. Ensure relevant details move with the customer across channels
3. Track common customer complaints
4. Sympathize the unlike types of customers
5. Cultivate the right tone of voice
6. Listen before you lot answer
7. Ain up to mistakes
8. Communicate expectations
9. Provide the best possible solution
10. Go the extra mile

There are two levels to treatment consumer complaints finer. Your back up agents have to respond to the state of affairs directly, and your company has to equip agents with the right tools. Success requires taking a few key steps at both levels.

one. Make answers easy to find

Speed is an incredibly important factor in providing a positive support experience. That's where a well-organized, searchable knowledge base tin help.

When answers are hands accessible, agents can find solutions to problems more quickly, enabling faster resolutions for your customers. Agents will likewise accept more time on their easily, so they can focus on resolving complex issues.

Customers should have access to a noesis base, besides. It will empower them to solve problems on their own. Utilize chatbots to distribute resources, and use relevant keywords so the content is searchable. Y'all can likewise organize your noesis base in a fashion that makes information technology expedient for visitors to discover the answers they need. For case, at Zendesk, nosotros categorize our noesis base past solution because our clients often accept product-specific questions.

two. Ensure relevant details motion with the customer across channels

If customers accept to repeat their complaint three unlike times in three different channels, they aren't probable to come away from the experience feeling nifty about your brand.

Arm your team with integrated support software that houses all client information in 1 centralized location. This allows agents to find the relevant details virtually each customer—including their grievance, contact data, and purchase history—from the moment they beginning communicating with them. The conversation can stay connected, no matter how the client chooses to collaborate.

How to structure your customer service department

Learn more nearly the key steps for structuring your customer service team with this free guide.

3. Track common client complaints

Individual consumer complaints don't exist in a vacuum. When ane customer struggles with an upshot, others take likely been in the same situation.

Use customer service software to rail all the tickets that come up in and then you tin can see trends in customer feedback. Did support tickets spike afterward the release of a new feature? Do customer concerns go resolved at a snail'due south pace? Are clients satisfied with their support interactions?

Leverage that data to dilate the vocalism of the customer and improve the overall customer experience.

4. Empathize the unlike types of customers

There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for treatment customer complaints—even irate customers don't all want the same thing from a customer service interaction. Some desire a refund, while others care more about an amends. The right response will depend on the blazon of customer and the specific situation.

• Angry customers often feel they take been wronged and want to express themselves, so permit them speak without interrupting. Listen to the problem, endeavor to understand what went incorrect, and search for a solution. When dealing with angry customers, sometimes it helps to use templates that can de-escalate the state of affairs.
• Impatient customers desire things done at their ain pace, which is unremarkably at breakneck speed. Reassure them by letting them know you're trying to resolve their issue as fast as possible.
• Vague customers don't provide many details and may even say a lot without maxim enough. Ask probing questions to pull out the information you demand. You tin can likewise clarify their statements by saying, "Just and then I'yard clear," and repeating what they said to yous.
• Demanding customers aren't easily satisfied and wait more than you tin give. Apologize for the inconvenience they experience, and try to resolve their trouble quickly.
• Challenging customers have fixed opinions and might want to tell yous how to do your task. Suggest solutions, only don't strength your advice on the client.

5. Cultivate the right tone of phonation

It's challenging to stay calm and collected when dealing with a confrontational or disgruntled customer, but it'due south paramount that agents do so. And we're not just talking virtually conversations that take place over the phone—we've all been on the other end of a passive-aggressive electronic mail or text message.

Agents must strive to lengthened the situation with measured responses while remaining human. Stay empathetic and curious—sounding similar an emotionless robot won't aid things, either. It's a tricky balance to observe but one that makes a big difference. A simple statement, like "I understand" or "I'chiliad here and ready to help," can become a long fashion.

"With every interaction, effort to see it from the customer'south perspective," Brummel advises. "Rather than beingness transactional or judgmental, empathize with them."

"With every interaction, effort to see it from the customer'due south perspective."

Information technology's beneficial to read your response out loud earlier sending it. Gut check for loaded language to ensure y'all're not accidentally blaming the customer for anything and putting them in a defensive mode (fifty-fifty if the issue was their error to begin with).

six. Listen earlier you lot answer

When someone's upset, i of the main things they desire is to feel heard. So don't try to resolve consumer complaints earlier you've taken the time to understand them. First by being nowadays and using reflective listening. Repeat the client's complaint back to them to ostend you understand.

Taking the time to hear what the customer is proverb, acknowledging their grievance, and apologizing to them is often as meaningful as giving them a refund or special offer.

"Listening before you reply is classic human relationship advice," says Brummel. "Similar to when we are in a heated situation with a significant other, we tend to want to provide an immediate reply. But you take to give the person space to feel acknowledged before they'll be set up to motion on to finding a solution."

"You have to give the customer infinite to feel best-selling before they'll exist ready to move into finding a solution."

To ensure you accept the full context, inquire the correct questions. For example, if you're a B2B company, you'll want to ask questions that assistance y'all better empathise what'southward going on internally at that customer's company.

For a particularly angry client, consider asking follow-up questions after you hear them out to diffuse the tension further.

7. Ain upwards to mistakes

Customers will complain nearly situations that are beyond your control, but sometimes, your visitor will be in the wrong. When you discover yourself in this state of affairs, it's important to ain the fault. Taking responsibility for your actions demonstrates that your business values integrity, and it will increase the customer'south confidence in you.

"Accept whatever feedback is there: Own it, and own how your team tin get better," suggests Brummel. "Fifty-fifty meliorate—don't be afraid to share that moment with that customer."

"Take whatever feedback is there: ain it, and own how your team tin can get better."

For example, simply proverb something similar, "If I was in your spot, I would exist disappointed too," shows the client that you're on their side and that they've been heard.

8. Communicate expectations

Be upfront with customers about how long it may accept to resolve their issue or how much you lot'll be able to exercise for them—don't make promises yous can't keep. People will often be understanding of any limitations on what an amanuensis tin can offer, as long as a reasonable expectation is communicated from the starting time.

According to Brummel, "Fifty-fifty though those conversations are tough and tin can feel awkward at first, it'south okay to say, 'That'southward not possible today, but here'southward what nosotros can do in the meantime.' Or, 'I don't have that data right now, but I am going to find out.' And fifty-fifty if you discover out that answer isn't one they'll like, that's okay, besides."

Although y'all might feel similar yous're letting a client downwardly, committing to honest communication is imperative. Be existent with the customer, and remember that you're not a car. Information technology'southward okay if you can't become them the solution they're looking for correct away.

9. Provide the best possible solution

Once you lot sympathize the problem at hand, follow upwardly and determine the best path forward to resolve it—whether that'southward talking the client through troubleshooting steps, sending a replacement production, offer a refund, or genuinely apologizing when you lot can't deliver what they were hoping for. Requite them something and then they walk abroad feeling meliorate about the brand.

If you have the bandwidth afterward following up, get above and across for the customer. Yous might surprise them with a handwritten thanks note, a bouquet of flowers, or a disbelieve code.

A thoughtful gesture might just exist the thing that turns a buyer into a loyal client.

Reduce customer concerns with proactive support

While it's important to accept a strategy in identify for reacting to customer complaints, information technology'south fifty-fifty better to proactively reduce the chances of them happening in the first place.

• Send customer surveys to inquire how you can improve your products, services, or back up interactions. Utilize that information to provide superior experiences.
• Don't ignore potential issues. Sometimes when a customer reaches out about i trouble, you'll discover another arising on the side. Don't be agape to speak up, even if it doesn't relate to their original request.
• Use AI to predict bad satisfaction ratings before they happen.

If yous're about to lose a customer and your win-back program fails, don't make information technology hard for them to leave—this can turn a at-home client into an angry complainer. It's amend to let them become on a expert annotation than to let them leave with a sour gustation in their mouth.

How to structure your customer service department

Learn more most the primal steps for structuring your customer service team with this free guide.

How to construction your customer service department

Learn more about the key steps for structuring your client service team with this complimentary guide.

Read now

Source: https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-complaints-10-tips-manage-better/

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