Today's column provides consumer complaints about consumer complaints. Companies, take heed for the fastest way to appease concerns, thanks to American Express and yours truly.
1. "Your product doesn't do what I expected it to do." If this is the case, then it's up to the Head Honcho to determine your customer's expectations versus what the company actually meant in its product claims.
If the two differ considerably, complaints occur. Find out what your customer's expectations were when they decided to buy from your company. Were these realistic? If your company doesn't correctly set expectations, customers will often set their own. Unfortunately, complaints happen when these two sets of expectations differ drastically. If the product or service didn't meet the customer's hopes, offering a prompt refund is the quickest way to defuse their anger and bring them back again to shop your products and/or services.
2. "Your promises are worthless." In this case, you promised something to a dissatisfied customer but never followed through. Do whatever is necessary to ensure that any promise you or an employee makes to a customer is realistic and can always be kept. If there's any doubt about your ability to deliver on a promise, don't make one. As I've told corporations for over 30 years, many consumers don't necessarily want a refund or a credit; they just want to be heard and offered an apology.
3. "Why doesn't anyone ever return my call?" Poor communication is probably the most common customer complaint, which is why it's important to employ enough staff to be responsive. Whether phone calls, emails, letters, tweets, or whatever means of communication about an issue, monitor each of these channels with enough employees to respond in an appropriate amount of time. The longer a business waits to reply, the more irate the customer becomes and the more negativity he or she spreads.
4. "Stop transferring me from person to person!" Between having to press multiple numbers to reach the party who's supposed to help but also doesn't have a clue is exasperating at best. Add to this, having to explain the problem(s) over and over adds additional aggravation. Train your staff to take responsibility for each incoming inquiry and keep ownership of it all the way through the process to the final resolution. This will prevent any one customer from falling through the cracks (and the negative remarks are much more likely to become positive feedback when other consumers inquire).
5. "Clueless employees – especially at the customer support level and above – might ruin a company." Your staffs' ability to deal with a wide variety of customer complaints obviously varies from hitch to glitch. Training and testing each employee on the widest variety of issues possible can help more than bosses dream imaginable. Too, if the company holds a worker accountable for making the best resolution for each customer, it'll take only a few well-publicized penalties to ensure everyone else is as consumer-friendly and knowledgeable as possible.
6. "You were rude and hateful to me on the phone." Frustrated customers can be offensive, and tired customer service employees can be short on patience, both of which often leads to an ugly confrontation that helps no one. Ensure that your front-line employees have plenty of positive support, rest and enough breaks to prevent visible stress from creeping into customer calls. Believe me, an already upset customer will pick up on any subtleties in employees' voices.
It's important to note that the customer is not always right. Unfortunately, lots of folks want something for nothing and screw over the rest of us with their dishonest acts. Perhaps some of you may recall the prospective Ellen's Poison Pen client who called about the airline destroying his suitcase. Even though I assured him I could obtain new luggage for him, this answer wasn't what he wanted to hear. Nope, instead he wanted my expertise to get him two round-trip tickets anywhere in the world this airline flew. Once I explained a broken piece of luggage didn't constitute a ginormous solution like that and I wouldn't do as he demanded, he called me a few choice words and slammed the phone down. In my opinion, folks like this are as bad as "regular" scammers and, worse, make it harder for us honest consumers to achieve success with our legitimate concerns.
Contact Ellen Phillips at consumerwatch@timesfreepress.com