How to deal with Customer Complaints

If you have been involved in a Home Business venture for any length of time, chances are that you have had some customer complaints regardless of how good your product or service is. Many factors are simply out of your control, such as shipping or employee interaction (if you have them), and it is a given that you will take the blame from time to time whether you were at fault or not. A good Home Business entrepreneur, however, learns to see these complaints as an opportunity rather than as a curse. This is because your character is revealed to your customer more when things go wrong than when things go right. So you can actually turn a disgruntled customer into a lifelong customer if you handle the complaint properly.

The main thing you should do when you get a complaint is to acknowledge the error and apologize for the failure that the customer has noticed. It is very helpful at this point to listen to the customer. Whatever you do, do not get defensive at this point. This is not an ideal time to correct the customer’s perception of the situation. It is essential that the apology appears genuine and not merely an empty exercise. This means giving the customer your undivided attention. An apology basically shows the customer that you care about their experience and it will usually neutralize their anger.

After you apologize,you should then empathize with the customer and the customer’s frustration. You are essentially putting yourself in their shoes at this point. We need to verify our understanding of both the customer service breakdown in whatever form it manifested, and its effect on the customer. As a general rule, the expression of empathy to the customer should come right after the apology. Although these 2 initial steps should do the job of making the customer feel valued. they do not in and of themselves prove to the customer that your home business is worthy of further patronage and may not yet be convinced whether or not additional experiences will be better than the last one. For this reason, you should next assure the customer that you are going to do something about the customer’s disappointing experience with you. You should then assure them that you are taking specific steps in response to this experience to upgrade or modify your policy or service structure in such a way to make sure that the unpleasant experience will never be repeated. This assurance validates the customer's concerns, and shows that you will not allow the negative situation to repeat itself in the future. Whatever you do, do not decline to take full responsibility for the problem, even if others were more to blame than you. Every single employee represents the business equally, and are all responsible to the same degree.

You should not take any corrective action prior to apologizing, whether or not the apology is for your own acts or the acts of another employee. The apology creates an atmosphere in which the relationship can be repaired and sets the stage to redeem your business and to hopefully retain the customer. If additional corrective action is required, proceed only after delivering a genuine apology.