1.0 Introduction
Customer complaints are perceived as negative feedback, problems, or proof that something is not working. Nobody wants (to deal with) unhappy customers.
But customer complaints are a gift. It’s free information about where your service or product is falling short. Once fixed/improved, it will increase your customer's value, even if you charge the same price.
Solving customer complaints leads to better products/services, which leads to happier customers who stay loyal longer, which leads to higher LTV and more word-of-mouth marketing.
Customer complaints are more valuable than any positive feedback.
This can be broken down into two parts.
2.0 How to get customer complaints
Most companies send a survey link at the end of an email, which is often ignored. This is a low-effort, low-result action.
In my opinion, the best approach is to ask the customer directly, one-on-one. High-effort, high-result.
Whenever you serve a customer, you have the opportunity to get feedback.
You can ask a neutral question, such as “What do you think about the product/service?” which is an acceptable question, but won’t get you too far.
A better question would be “Is there anything that you’d like to be better? We want to deliver the best product/service, and we value your opinion.”
Now you are asking for an improvement that doesn’t have to be a customer complaint, but it could become one from another customer. This improvement could also lead to the existing customer staying longer.
Keep track of this, and focus on what adds most value.
For medium-sized companies, the customer care department is where this data already flows. It’s all about capturing it and analyzing it.
3.0 Own the complaints and share the fixes
The worst way to handle a complaint is to argue, disagree, or dismiss.
The best way to handle a complaint is to listen, understand, and figure out how to solve it.
Once it is solved, share it. Use social media, email newsletter, blog, whatever your channel of communication is. Publicly owning a problem and showing you solved it builds more trust than any marketing campaign. It shows existing customers that you are paying attention to their feedback, and you are the kind of business that takes care of them.
4.0 The outcome
Addressing customer complaints and ensuring they don’t recur is one of the best ways to invest in the business.
The return comes in many forms:
Fewer customer complaints in the future, meaning fewer hours spent dealing with the same complaints again and again;
Stronger word-of-mouth marketing;
Better online reviews;
Increased lifetime value, current customers stay longer, and new ones churn less.
Most business owners see complaints as a cost. Something that they don’t want to deal with, but they have to. The business owners who treat complaints as a feedback loop end up with better businesses and better customers.
If you want help building a system to capture and act on customer feedback, or brainstorm, reach out to kosta@ristovskiconsulting.com to explore what’s possible.