{"id":34597,"date":"2020-12-03T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/?p=34597"},"modified":"2023-03-03T16:19:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T16:19:19","slug":"how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints","title":{"rendered":"How to effectively resolve customer complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re a small business owner, you\u2019re likely to get a customer complaint at some point (if you haven\u2019t already). Your natural reaction might be to get defensive, which is understandable. However, it\u2019s important to manage and resolve any complaints quickly to avoid negative word-of-mouth, as this could lose you repeat business as well as potential customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why customer complaints aren\u2019t all bad<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most successful companies are customer centric. They listen to their customers, take action to meet their needs and use all feedback \u2013 positive or negative \u2013 to improve their service or product and build their reputation<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one customer complains, there might be another one out there who has experienced the same issue, but just hasn\u2019t had the time or energy to speak up. Think about it like this \u2013 when you resolve a customer complaint, you\u2019re not helping just one person, but many!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the handling procedure for customer complaints?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The way that you handle complaints is something that your customers will definitely remember. Your response time, tone of voice and the language that you use are all key in making your customers feel confident that they\u2019re valued and are being taken seriously. So, it\u2019s important to have a procedure in place that all staff can follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

1. Be polite<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, you should respond to complaints as quickly as possible, within a week is standard. When you do talk to them, thank them for taking time out of their day to share their feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Get the details<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So that you understand exactly what the problem is, ask the customer for as much detail about the issue as possible. It\u2019s also a good idea to keep a record of all complaints with a basic spreadsheet \u2013 this will help you to spot any trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Listen carefully<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledge the customer\u2019s complaint, apologise if appropriate and ask them how they\u2019d like the problem to be solved. This could be through something like a refund, repair or replacement product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Confirm the solution<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To avoid any misunderstandings further down the line, confirm the solution agreed upon, preferably in writing or email. If you have a complaints procedure in place, you can also send this to the customer for their reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Go further<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If appropriate, you could offer the customer a goodwill gesture, such as a discount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Follow up<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If there are any delays with resolving their issue, make sure to let the customer know! After the issue is solved, contact the customer to see if they\u2019re happy. If they leave a positive review, then you can easily share it with the world using our social media sharing feature<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could also reassure the customer that their feedback is taken seriously, by letting them know what you\u2019re doing to avoid the problem in the future. It\u2019s also a good idea to ask them how satisfied they were with the customer service, as this will help you to refine and improve your complaints procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re a small business owner, you\u2019re likely to get a customer complaint at some point (if you haven\u2019t already). Your natural reaction might be to get defensive, which is understandable. However, it\u2019s important to manage and resolve any complaints quickly to avoid negative word-of-mouth, as this could lose you repeat business as well as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":34604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3093,2944],"tags":[3140,3113,2872],"class_list":["post-34597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-advice","category-trade","tag-business-advice","tag-trade-feature","tag-tradesman-tips"],"acf":false,"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/rp-prod-wordpress-b-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/2020\/12\/02172644\/Complaints-featured.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Amina","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/author\/amina-sinclair-dialloratedpeople-com"},"yoast_head":"\nCustomer complaints and how to effectively resolve them | Rated People<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every small business has to deal with customer complaints. Rated People gives you tips on how to handle any negative feedback that you get.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Customer complaints and how to effectively resolve them | Rated People\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every small business has to deal with customer complaints. Rated People gives you tips on how to handle any negative feedback that you get.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rated People Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ratedpeople\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-03T09:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-03T16:19:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/rp-prod-wordpress-b-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/2020\/12\/02172644\/Complaints-featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"766\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"527\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amina\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amina\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Customer complaints and how to effectively resolve them | Rated People","description":"Every small business has to deal with customer complaints. Rated People gives you tips on how to handle any negative feedback that you get.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Customer complaints and how to effectively resolve them | Rated People","og_description":"Every small business has to deal with customer complaints. Rated People gives you tips on how to handle any negative feedback that you get.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints","og_site_name":"Rated People Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ratedpeople","article_published_time":"2020-12-03T09:40:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-03T16:19:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":766,"height":527,"url":"https:\/\/rp-prod-wordpress-b-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/2020\/12\/02172644\/Complaints-featured.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amina","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amina","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints"},"author":{"name":"Amina","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5de96286dbc22b38e10ed714215b4c48"},"headline":"How to effectively resolve customer complaints","datePublished":"2020-12-03T09:40:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-03T16:19:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints"},"wordCount":509,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/rp-prod-wordpress-b-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/2020\/12\/02172644\/Complaints-featured.jpg","keywords":["business advice","Trade feature","tradesman tips"],"articleSection":["Business advice","Trade"],"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints","url":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints","name":"Customer complaints and how to effectively resolve them | Rated People","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/rp-prod-wordpress-b-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/2020\/12\/02172644\/Complaints-featured.jpg","datePublished":"2020-12-03T09:40:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-03T16:19:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5de96286dbc22b38e10ed714215b4c48"},"description":"Every small business has to deal with customer complaints. Rated People gives you tips on how to handle any negative feedback that you get.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/rp-prod-wordpress-b-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/2020\/12\/02172644\/Complaints-featured.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/rp-prod-wordpress-b-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/2020\/12\/02172644\/Complaints-featured.jpg","width":766,"height":527,"caption":"Tradesman in a workshop, talking on the phone"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/how-to-effectively-resolve-customer-complaints#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to effectively resolve customer complaints"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/","name":"Rated People Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5de96286dbc22b38e10ed714215b4c48","name":"Amina","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/752855b33f7144b4577a607b6934b9cbec00ab8768ef99d54a9897df03e850e3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/752855b33f7144b4577a607b6934b9cbec00ab8768ef99d54a9897df03e850e3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Amina"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34597"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45778,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34597\/revisions\/45778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratedpeople.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<script>(function(){function c(){var b=a.contentDocument||a.contentWindow.document;if(b){var d=b.createElement('script');d.innerHTML="window.__CF$cv$params={r:'9ce6b0c59d85a87d',t:'MTc3MTE3ODI3Ng=='};var a=document.createElement('script');a.src='/cdn-cgi/challenge-platform/scripts/jsd/main.js';document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(a);";b.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d)}}if(document.body){var a=document.createElement('iframe');a.height=1;a.width=1;a.style.position='absolute';a.style.top=0;a.style.left=0;a.style.border='none';a.style.visibility='hidden';document.body.appendChild(a);if('loading'!==document.readyState)c();else if(window.addEventListener)document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded',c);else{var e=document.onreadystatechange||function(){};document.onreadystatechange=function(b){e(b);'loading'!==document.readyState&&(document.onreadystatechange=e,c())}}}})();</script>