A customer complaint is like a bitter lemon - but you can make lemonade of it

Columinist Lynn Hunsacker, clearAction, wrote recently on CustomerThink:

Love Those Lemons: When They Complain, Make Lemonade

Negative customer feedback is a lot like biting into a lemon — the bitterness is hard to love — unless you give the lemon a good squeeze and some sugar, and transform it into refreshing and healthy lemonade. You’re only as strong as your weakest link, so those lemons — complaints and low survey ratings — are indeed essential ingredients to improving customer experiences.

To squeeze your voice of the customer lemons into useful juice, you’ll want to:

• Make it easy for customers to give you early warnings of their dissatisfaction,
• Strive to see the whole picture of the customers’ experience,
• Analyze root causes.

To add sugar, you’ll want to put a positive spin on your your new-found knowledge of dissatisfiers and their root causes. After all, what better warnings could you have for ways to manage and nurture your weakest links? Working on the root causes of dissatisfiers is the best way of:

• Migrating ambivalent and at-risk customers into a reliable source of profit,
• Preventing your brand fans from stumbling upon your weak areas and becoming disillusioned,
• Building brand equity by delivering company-wide on your brand promise.
  

The average American company loses half its customers within five years. How can your company achieve sustained growth with image-building alone? By addressing the customer group giving you “lemon feedback” you can turn negative word-of-mouth trends to sustainable competitive advantages with a ripple effect on your entire customer base. This

internal branding effort aligns what’s going on inside the company with what’s being promised to customers.It adds customer experience substance to your value proposition.

On a hot day, a cool drink of lemonade is just the thing to re-energize. Similarly, in the heat of competition, lemonade is just what the doctor ordered to provide a compelling customer experience with your brand.

I have a great Customer Complaint Management White Paper and Assessment framework.

If interested, follow this link and contact me?

http://www.customerfocusconsult.com/complaint-management.htm

More complaints leads to better customer service

Yes, it’s true and it’s quite possibly one of the best kept secrets of those companies with superior profits and good reputations. In fact, what may surprise you is that those companies with consistently high levels of customer complaints also have even higher levels of customer loyalty.

More Complaints = Better Business

How does that work? These companies actively pursue customer feedback and see each complaint as a gift rather than a nuisance. They make it easy for customers to let them know what they think and what they experience with their products or services. Only 14% of customers leave for product reasons, 68% leave because of poor treatment when complaining or asking questions. These companies recognize that trust and listening are the foundations for customer interactions. Also, better interactions translate into happier customers and more business.

In my more than two decades of working with companies looking to improve their relationships with customers, I’ve discovered that your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning and if you make it easy for them to complain, they offer themselves for free! The customer that does not complain and does not come back is the one that hurts your business most of all! Ninety percent of them won’t come back to you.

Not surprisingly, I found resonance in a recent article in the newsletter of the Toronto Chapter of ICSA (Int. Customer Service Association) by Gail Levitt who provided these critical steps and checkpoints for developing an effective complaint management system:

1. Create and Implement a Complaint Management System Policy Statement

• Communicate standards for conduct, policies, procedures, and resolution in writing so it is clear to all customers and staff;
• Ensure that the policy statement reflects the needs of customers based on value and legality;
• Make it accessible to customers and staff through a variety of media.
  

2. Publicize a Location for Receiving Complaints

• Make it visible and accessible to customers;
• Encourage customers to voice their dissatisfaction;
• Communicate the positive intentions of the company.
  

3. Develop an Efficient System for Record-Keeping

• Design a flexible and efficient system with quick identification of and responses to complaints;
• Enable staff to respond immediately to complaints that must be reported to other departments or distribution networks or legal enforcement or regulatory agencies;
• Monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the system and make improvements with minimal bureaucracy.

4. Process and Record Complaints Consistently

• Log in the complaint and any relevant data;
• Categorize the complaint for the appropriate resolution and record-keeping;
• Assign the complaint to one person for handling;
• Forward the complaint to additional levels of authority, as appropriate.
  

5. Acknowledge Customer Complaints Promptly

• Establish and enforce response times;
• Personalize the message;
• Talk to the customer if possible by phone or in person;
• Avoid using impersonal form letters or emails;
• Ensure customers with special needs are handled appropriately.

I would like to share with readers that I offer an innovative and very systematic complaint handling diagnostic service. Interested?