Here is a great tip to improve your customer service and complaints handling. As a leader in this field Alison Miles-Jenkins shares her practical ideas to improve your complaints handling and customer. Why not learn from an expert in the field?
Here is a great tip to improve complaints handling, have you tried it yet?
It is tempting to dream of a time when you receive no complaints, a time when your service fits exactly what you customers want, a time when your business is thriving.
But hang on a moment. That moment will also be the time when one of your most valuable sources of feedback has dried up. That in turn may bring with it a loss of customer focus and so your business drifts away from satisfying customers almost by accident.
News this week of many thousands of complaints swamping the banking industry are a wakeup call. Banks have been trying to build up their complaints handling performance. That's a good start, but have they missed the point? If they had been listening to their customers then they would already have had the feedback that they had problems. So they have in effect missed a key chance to solve some root causes and avoid complaints altogether. Those opportunities have been presenting themselves in complaints and feedback over many years. Now, the volumes are so high that even the Ombudsman is struggling to cope.
Imagine for a moment a world where staff seek out complaints or even minor dis-satisfaction from otherwise apparently satisfied customers. They will receive comments such as: "No complaints, your service is great." Well that's fantastic if you feedback. Your staff might also get comments such as: "I wasn't going to mention it, but ...." as if by magic an opportunity to fine tune a product of service follows. That niggle if dealt with and acted upon will make sure that customer service improves.
Imaging if bank staff had asked what their customers thought of the CPI products? For some years they'd be hearing negative comments. In other words they could have solved this problem before it got out of control.
So our key tip is to set a day a week where your employees as customers to complain. Ask them if there is anything that could be improved to make your customer service better. Get the feedback and act upon it. Best of all it is free! You may find the investment of some time here will save you money by reducing your complaints handling costs.
We have some more ideas for you on our website.
Alison
Alison Miles-JenkinsTraining To Achieve
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