Alexandria Brown a.k.a "The E-zine Queen" and author of Small Business Marketing Blog has a five-step process in handling customer complaints:
1. Validate the customer's feelings. Simply acknowledge that she's irritated. Example: "I can understand you are upset."
2. Assure her you'll take care of her. Let her know something will be done. Example: "I'm here to help you with this."
3. Make a "sad-glad" statement. This helps the customer realize you care. Example: "I'm sorry you experienced a problem. And I'm glad you told me about it!"
4. Ask the customer what will make HER happy. Don't let this scare you! Customer service experts say that most often the upset customer will ask for "less" than what you would have offered yourself. Example: "How can we make this better?" or "How can we make this up to you?"
5. Acknowledge that you'll do what she wants, or make a counter offer. (But always try to just give her what she wants! In the end, it will save you time and headaches, and avoid any bad word spreading about you.) Example: "I want to keep you as a customer, and we're going to honor your request." Or, "We can't do that per our agreement, but we can... [counter offer here]."
I'd also throw in a little something else for her trouble. For example, perhaps free shipping or a bonus gift.
My thoughts:
Hmmm... I never thought about asking the customer what will make them happy - good tip...as long as the request is within reason, of course! If that was the case I would be asking for trips around the world ;)
I'm not one for scripted responses when it comes to dealing with an unsatisfied customer. Sometimes you'll come off looking like you've just started taking acting classes. I think a simple apology followed by quick action to show the customer that you're going to do something about it is enough in my book.
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