Managing Customer Satisfaction Issues

How to Turn Your Unhappiest Customers' Frowns Upside Down.

Unless you're a new business in the home service provider industry, you've probably already had an encounter with a less than thrilled customer. Hopefully it didn’t dishearten you too much. These things happen. But, it's important to figure out why your customer is unhappy; first, you can potentially prevent whatever initially caused the dissatisfaction from happening again and, second, you can implement steps to turn the situation around and bring those customers back into the fold and make them a powerful part of your businesses’ success.

It’s important to look at a customer complaint as an opportunity to deliver an amazing customer experience. Nine times out of 10, a customer will still do business with you after an unsatisfactory experience if you work to fix the mistake fully, but, it’s not always easy. Sometimes we mean well, but slip ups with our customers still occur. To succeed at your business, you need the right tools for your trade, and great customer service is one of them.

Set the right mindset amongst your company to deliver top quality service to your customers.

The golden rule applies here: Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. If you wouldn’t like to be treated the way you’re treating your customers, then it’s definitely time to do something differently.

And, yes, the customer is always right (within reason).

Start with admitting that something is making your customer unhappy. Don’t become dismissive. Give credibility to every customer’s message, even when a customer seems overly critical. You’ll be missing important feedback if you ignore it.

Listen intently and completely to what your customer is saying to you, then repeat what you think the complaint is back to the customer.

Don’t handle a complaint with passive/aggressiveness, rudeness, or sarcasm. Your customer is already on edge, and any small error in how you respond to the situation can make everything even more difficult. You can potentially lose a paying customer for good.

Don’t lead with another negative question.

Never say, “I don’t know.” Always find someone who can be of help or find the answer yourself.

Don’t say, “I’m so sorry to hear you’re having a problem.” Or any version of it. It sounds like blame passing to the customer.

Don’t mirror aggressive behavior with aggressive behavior. Maintain and portray a calm, polite, yet firm tone.

A shy customer who is not forthcoming will not divulge much detail about his or her complaint. It’s your job to be a detective and investigate the issue and seek a resolution.

Offer a solution. “If I do ‘ABC,’ will this make it better?"

Follow up after you’ve implemented a solution. Check in and make sure that everything is still working out happily for your customer.

This is where customers can be lost forever if things fail. However, you can make them into loyal customers if you remedy their complaints to their satisfaction and in a way that makes them feel heard and appreciated. Statistics show that news of a bad experience will reach twice as many people as news of a good one. Worse yet, it’s six to seven times more expensive to find new customers than it is to keep the ones you already have. This is why working through customer service issues to a satisfactory end for your customer is so important.

Give your employees authority to offer sincere apologies and make decisions on the spot to help the customer. There are few things more frustrating than already being frustrated and then having your call passed around before the appropriate person can give you an appropriate solution to your problem.

Maintain your patience and don’t take anything personally. Some things, no matter what we do, are just outside our control.

Seek help. Service.com is here to lend a hand when you reach a snag with a customer—we have experienced Project Managers who act as your personal concierge to take care of your bumps in the customer service road.

Be diligent and conscientious when it comes to how you handle customer complaints. Your customers will appreciate the effort you put forth in resolving the issue. Start putting these customer service tweaks in place today and see how it helps your business. And, of course, service.com is always here to help service pros build a better business with the power of our platform behind you. If you're not already a pro with with service.com click below to learn more or join today for free!