It’s very important to manage your online reputation because it’s not just “online” - it’s going to follow you throughout your business and life. Everyone has a digital signature today. Whether it’s good or not is all up to you. Once you get complaints, and you will as you get more successful, how you deal with each complaint is going to make even more of a difference in how you’re perceived.
There are some rules you can set for yourself when it comes to dealing with complaints. First, only deal with one at a time so that you can remain focused. Then follow these guidelines to ensure that you get the best result.
Listen or Read for Understanding
Even if it upsets you that someone has complained, especially in public online, you must put that aside and truly listen to their complaint from their perspective. If you know your audience, you should be able to slide right into their shoes and try to see it from their viewpoint. Remember what Dr. Phil always says, “perception is reality” and this is never truer than when it comes to being unsatisfied with a product or service.
Don’t Be Defensive
There is no rule that you need to let people walk on you, that is true. Sometimes you are right, and the customer is wrong - they are just a freebie seeker, your competition, or something fishy is going on. But sometimes, they’re truly upset customers who feel wronged. It’s important for you to decide on that. The only way to do that is to avoid the defensive behavior.
Read Between the Lines
Most of the time a real customer who has a real problem will tell you the solution to the complaint. Find that solution, and if possible, give them what they want. When you can do that, it’s going to make everything much simpler to get it over with and ensure that you give everyone else the right impression.
Respond Thoughtfully
Regardless of how you truly feel, always respond to complaints on social media right where the complaint was made. Tell them you’re sorry they had that experience, and what you can do to fix it. If you can align their information from social media with your internal information, contact them offline too.
Learn from it
When you can add the information to your policies, contract, or fix your product to avoid the complaint in the future, you should do that. When you do it, let the customer who complained know what you’ve done. They’re going to feel great that you did it and truly listened to them. You’ll finally become a business that is customer-centric and understand the power of one.
Only when you’ve fixed that one complaint should you move on. If you hire customer service representatives, train them to focus on one complaint at a time. That way each complaint gets resolved faster. You can even set in place a policy that for some types of complaints, you deal with them personally.
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