How to Thoughtfully and Gracefully Handle Customer Complaints

by Thomma on January 18, 2012

Though you do your best in conducting the day-to-day operations of your business, sometimes, you’re going to make mistakes. When you do, it’s vital that you take responsibility for those mistakes and do everything in your power to resolve the problems. A strong online presence gives you great opportunities to thoughtfully and gracefully handle customer complaints.

Leverage Social Media

People increasingly expect business’ social media channels to provide points of contact for customer service purposes. So leverage social media in order to gracefully handle customer complaints. If a customer has informed you, via Twitter, say, or Facebook, that you’ve made a mistake, then by all means respond to that customer on that channel and take responsibility for the mistake. Acknowledge it, apologize for it, then offer to do what you can to rectify it.

Social media channels – whether a blog or social networking sites – give you and your customers an excellent means of rapid, two-way communication, which you can use to quickly and sincerely address customer complaints. Your rapid response time across social media channels demonstrates to customers that while mistakes occasionally happen, you’re willing to take responsibility for them and to work to ensure they occur as infrequently as possible. When you show accountability to your customers, they will likely appreciate your honesty and your assistance and see that you’re worth their continued trust and patronage.

The Ball is in Your Court

Even if the mistake isn’t your fault, be unfailingly polite. When something goes wrong, customers aren’t interested in whether the blame lies at your door, at your distributor’s door, or your web host’s door. If you try to pass the blame, it will only anger your customers. They aren’t going to care about issues with your distributor or your web host. They care about getting a resolution to their problem.

You’ve built up an online presence for many reasons, not the least of which is to demonstrate to your customers that you’re available to them no matter what and that you care about their feedback and serving them well. When something has gone wrong, don’t argue with customers over whose fault the mistake was or wasn’t. The ball is in your court to apologize, communicate that you’ll do what it takes to make things right, then act on your word.

Send Messages of Correction and Apology

Let’s say you make a typo on one of your promotionals, and customers think they’re not just getting a good deal, but that they’re practically getting a steal. For mistakes like that, you’ll need to send messages of correction and apology via email, your social media channels, and probably all of the above. Correction isn’t enough. You need to apologize for your mistake. Chances are if the typo was something along the lines of “$100” instead of “$1000”, customers will understand that the typo was indeed a mistake. Make that clear, though, and make equally clear that you regret the mistake.

Your messages need to strike a chord of sincerity with your customers. People need to see – to feel – the human face of your business. Everybody makes mistakes, but people tend to hold organizations to a higher standard of accuracy. When you’ve goofed, communicate to people that you sincerely regret the error and that you will take every precaution to see that it won’t happen again. When you’ve made a mistake on a specific transaction, the same applies: convey to the customer who is involved your sincere apologies, offer to do what you can to fix the problem, then by all means, walk the walk.

Online channels give businesses powerful opportunities to thoughtfully and gracefully handle customer complaints. Indeed, customers increasingly expect businesses to respond to their needs and concerns via social media channels, and when businesses make mistakes, customers often leverage those channels to address their concerns. So remember that a major reason for building an online presence for your business in the first place is to serve your customers to the best of your ability, and always follow through politely, sincerely, and with not only words but action.

Photo by Robbie Sproule on Flickr.com.

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