For busy complaints handlers and team managers here are some quick tips from Reduce Complaints a UK based complaints training business. Why not use them at a team meeting to keep complaints handling skills up to scratch?
Here are some great complaints handling ideas to help you handle those complaints well:
1. It is about people. The human touch will help resolve a complaint. Get your empathy muscle exercised. A complainant often wants you to demonstrate an understanding of their situation. In other words, they are seeking an empathetic response. So why not show you are taking the complaint seriously and recognise the emotion that is within the complaint?
2. Don’t do sympathy. Do understand the differencebetween empathy and sympathy. Get it wrong and that complaint dialogue will go on and on. And on!
3. Be clear. Tell the customer what will happen next and when they should expect it to happen. Remember that the complainant is actually and normally a customer first and complainant second.
4. Thank them! It has probably taken the customer some effort to summon up the desire to call you to complain. So thank them for giving you the chance to sort out their complaint. Make sure you do this in an authentic way. Be genuine or else it won’t work for you.
5. Say: “Sorry” early on and mean it. Don’t be grudging with an apology it is not worth it unless you want to receive some anger directed to you. Sorry can be the hardest word. That’s a shame because it can make a great difference.
6. Put it right! This is about resolution. Often the complainant will fill their complaint with many issues to emphasize the importance to the complainant of what has gone wrong. This may be an attempt to get you to take notice of the issue. Sometimes this is a detailed list of grievances and that can cloud the real issue. Simply asking what will put things right can unlock a previously difficult complaint. If in doubt ask them. Just give them a call.
7. Learn from complaints. Not just what organisation procedures need improving but learn yourself. Reflect on what you did and how it was received. Be a reflective complaints handling practitioner.
If you need help with your complaints handling we offer a range oftraining and developmentsolutions. We train people to deal with complaints across the UK, our experience spans over 20 years and so our help is just a phone call or email away.
Gordon Miles
The Domino Effect of complaints handling
Great news on complaints handling. You can turn complaints into more business. Learn more about a success story which did just that.
When to use empathy in complaints handling
For those who want to read some of the people skills that lie behind good complaint handling from a UK expert in the field.
Complaints handling
Some more ideas on how to handle complaints well from UK expert Gordon Miles who has set up and run a UK wide complaints handling organisation.
