How did you react the last time you received a complaint from a customer? Our first reaction to ‘bad news’ is generally not to leap for joy or respond positively! But what if I told you that in business, we should treat any complaint as ‘customer feedback’ and use it to our advantage?

The way you respond to complaints and feedback tells your customers a great deal about your business. In the first instance, you should reply to the customer within 24 hours (or sooner!), even if that reply is just to say “thank you for contacting us. We are investigating your concern and will get back to you ASAP”. Conversely, if you delay your response (or worse still, fail to respond at all), your customer is likely to get angry at your lack of response and start forming opinions about your company that may or may not be accurate. You are also increasing the likelihood of your customer ranting to others (sometimes on social media) and negative ‘word of mouth’ advertising about your business will spread like wildfire.

So the trick is to genuinely respond to every complaint, and to do so in a timely manner. Often in the first interaction, the customer will need to vent their frustration on you, and provided this doesn’t become abusive, you need to be prepared to listen and thank them for explaining the situation to you. Wherever possible, I recommend that any subsequent communication is put in writing to ensure there is no confusion about what has been said or agreed to.

The other advantage of receiving complaints is that it helps you to improve your business. The complaint may have stemmed from a misunderstanding on the part of the customer – but this is still worth investigating to ensure that no one else has the same experience and that your business is operating in the best way it can.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

Last week I experienced some interesting scenarios in my interactions with local businesses. On the one hand, I was provided with excellent customer service via genuine and sincere concern by a business owner and her staff. On the other end of the spectrum, I was compelled to pen a rather long and detailed letter of complaint to a business that showed little disregard for fulfilling their obligations.

It was very obvious to me that my positive interaction was with a business who understands that their most important asset is their ongoing relationships with customers. They clearly demonstrated a desire to remedy an issue and did everything possible to ensure that I would remain a returning customer.

The negative interaction with the other business showed by their actions that they are not focussed on meeting the needs of their clients. Even when a situation was brought to their attention, they did little to remedy it.

It is highly likely that you will need to deal with complaints. It is how your business deals with those complaints that will set you apart. There are some essentials that are relatively easy to cover, including: respond to complaints as soon as possible; provide customers with an opportunity to be heard; assure the customer that you are seeking to find a solution; give the customer reasons to return to you despite the issue that has occurred.

Although you may not always find a solution that is mutually agreeable, the way you deal with the complaint will show your business in an exponentially better light than the one who deals badly with a complaint. Give the complainant as little to complain about as possible.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

Why on earth would I be telling you to encourage complaints? Shouldn’t women in business be doing everything they can to discourage complaints? Short answer: no! I’m not suggesting that you should purposely create scenarios where customers are justified to complain. But I am encouraging you to create a culture in your business where customers feel comfortable to complain in the event that something does go wrong.

There are a number of key ways to do this:

• Have a written and highly visible complaints process

• Use encouraging, friendly language (“we want to hear about your experience with our business!”) • Contact the complainant within 24 hrs.

• Wherever possible, contact the complainant initially by phone and ask them to explain the situation to you, providing assurances that your aim is improve the outcome for them. You can then follow this up with written correspondence (although you may need to obtain legal advice before putting anything in writing to avoid legal implications in cases of possible negligence)

• You don’t necessarily need to admit any wrongdoing (especially if there wasn’t any!) and you may need to obtain legal advice in some situations. But the initial contact should be to simply acknowledge the complainant’s concerns and really listen to (and record) what they have to say.

• Don’t promise something you can’t deliver (i.e. you won’t always be able to give the complainant exactly what they want)

• Wherever possible (and appropriate), offer them something (a gift, a free or discounted consultation, etc) to say thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.

And most importantly, you then need to use your customers’ feedback to improve your services and ensure that the same scenario doesn’t occur again. This might involve training your staff to approach the situation differently or changing procedures so that particular situations don’t arise.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender