In a perfect world, every customer your business works with will be pleased with how the transaction went and will want to return to you for future business.
In reality, this isn’t always the case. It is human nature that people make mistakes and there will always be circumstances outside of your control that can lead to a customer not feeling they received what they paid for. Consider the following tips for handling negative customer feedback.
Be responsive
When people feel they have received poor or inadequate service, they can be quick to complain, which they are entitled to do. One thing that can be extremely damaging and can make that person feel even more negatively towards your business is to ignore them. Being unresponsive can come across as arrogant, which can seriously tarnish the reputation of your business. Once a customer has complained, the best thing you can do is to work to rectify and resolve their issue. Doing nothing and failing to respond casts a negative light on the business, particularly with the nature of negative feedback being received on social media platforms where there is an audience.
Apologise and offer a solution
One of the worst actions you can take is to respond aggressively and to take no responsibility for the way in which you have made the customer feel. The best step you can take is to acknowledge they are unhappy with the service they received, apologise for this and assure them that you will contact them, through calling or emailing, or encourage them to come back into the business so that you can resolve the issue for them.
Implement changes
Once you have spoken to the customer who has had negative feedback and worked out how you can resolve the issue for them, it is important that you implement the appropriate changes to resolve it. Saying you are going to and then not doing anything will only make the issue bigger. One common way this occurs is when one employee says they will follow up and take the appropriate action to resolve the issue, but then the next day the issue still hasn’t been resolved, so when the client calls back, they deal with a different employee who has no knowledge of what needs to occur.
Learn from it
To prevent the same issue occurring again in the future, analysing how the negative feedback was dealt with and if it was dealt with efficiently. Evaluate what could be done better or what could be approved upon. Maybe you dealt with and resolved the issue in the end but the procedure in place for following up with and responding to negative feedback could be approved upon. Every negative aspect of business should be analysed and improved upon; that is how your business model will continue to develop and strengthen.
