How to tackle complaints in a way that turns dissatisfied customers into satisfied ones

OK, if you're running a business, you're sure to hear a complaint from time to time. You're sure to get an angry customer once in a while, a customer who thinks he's been cheated, a customer who thinks she's been treated unfairly or rudely, a customer who thinks that you've made their life harder instead of easier like you're supposed to. It's inevitable, so the time to prepare for it is now. Preparing for it means developing techniques of meeting those complaints kindly, calmly, and satisfyingly. Sometimes a complaining customer can be turned into the stoutest, loyalist customer you've ever had in a few minutes, depending on how you respond to him or her when he or she complains.
1. When a customer has a complaint, they're usually not in the best of moods. They're usually not their best selves. They're usually a little more vicious than usual, impatient than usual, frustrated and desperate than usual. It could be that your company failed them on a particularly bad day, and all the badness of that day is now crashing down on you. Fair or unfair, there it is, crashing. Fair or unfair, there it is, your big chance, your opportunity to make a friend and find a loyal customer. How should you respond to customer complaints in a way that accomplishes these goals?

2. When considering customer complaints, when considering how to turn dissatisfied customers into satisfied ones, start with the basics. Start with how people like to be treated when in a bad mood. You've maybe been in a bad mood once or twice in your lifetime. You've maybe noticed that you're a little more sensitive to little things at those times than you are when in shinier moods. A tone of a voice, a look, a gesture, a sigh, a scowl-suddenly it's as if you're viewing the world through a gigantic magnifying glass, the world's imperfections, the world's oily pores, nose hairs, halitosis, rashes, mountainous, white-capped pimples, etc., are getting up close and personal. You know how that feels. You therefore know how your customer is probably feeling when he or she calls in or writes in or comes in to complain.
3. When considering how to handle customer complaints in the best way, consider how you like your complaints to be treated, consider how you don't like them to be treated. Sometimes, for example, mere efficiency isn't quite good enough. Merely getting a product replaced in a timely manner isn't enough. Sometimes, you must not only get the product replaced in a timely manner, you must do it with a sincerity of friendliness that comes with time and practice. That may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it isn't. Things come naturally when you've worked through their unnaturalness.
4. You're not going to be able to respond to every customer complaint to yourself. Now we come to perhaps those most important issue of all: employee training. No one likes to be yelled at, blamed, insulted, cursed, or accused of laziness and deceit. Handling customer complaints is an emotionally exhausting task. Your employees, therefore, will have to be prepared emotionally to do it. You've got to make complaint-handling experts out of them. You've got to get them to the point where responding calmly to anger is as easy as responding calmly to calm. When a customer's complaining, when he or she is particularly hurt and vulnerable, you want your employees to walk on eggshells and leave not a crack behind. This not only means training, it means rewarding those employees who do a consistent good job.

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