How to Respond to Customer Complaints +Complaint Response Examples

Domino’s Pizza is one of the world’s best-known fast-food brands, with millions of hungry customers ordering pizzas to be delivered every single day of the year. Survey tools like SurveyMonkey and Userlike make it super fast and easy to get a quick star rating from your customers via email or live chat. Centralize this data somewhere all your teams can reach it and apply it to future customer interactions.

Customer service teams can then reply to the messages, comments and address any queries or feedback from customers. Focussing on making customers happy is not the job of your customer service team alone, but your entire organization’s. Ensure that everyone in your company, every goal you set, and every decision you make, places the customer in the centre.

Bots v/s live chat What does your business need?

For example, identifying a spike in support tickets after the release of a new feature can shine a light on product problems that need to be corrected. Your organization’s first reply time (FRT)—or how long it takes a support agent to respond to a consumer request—directly impacts customer sentiment. When you have inconvenient hours that lead to a longer FRT, customers can become frustrated. Automated phone options can transfer consumers to the right representative to solve the issue and ease demand on support teams. That said, poorly designed or overly complex automated systems can lead customers into frustrating loops.

Live chat offers immediate assistance that works well for customer service, while voice support is instant and soothing. Research has shown the importance of incorporating tracking so that customers can follow their deliveries. But what can you do when your third-party logistics partner delays the delivery, or worse, it goes missing?

If you receive multiple complaints about one employee, one product, or one feature, that probably means there’s a problem with that employee, product, or feature. If that’s the case, thank the customer once again for reaching out and offer follow-up information or instructions if the customer needs to get back in touch with you. You should see a credit in your account in the next 3-5 business days – please reach out to me if you do not see that.

As customers become increasingly vocal about their experiences with brands, support teams can’t ignore the importance of social listening. Social listening refers to the process of identifying and engaging in conversations (both positive and negative) that customers have started about your brand on social platforms. This can be achieved by tracking your brand mentions across different social channels, and looking out for specific keywords, phrases and comments. Data-driven analytics are an indirect but pivotal source of information that can help you fine-tune your customer service strategy. Web analytics can offer you invaluable insights into customer behaviour and intent.

Customers appreciate when they can troubleshoot problems without the need to speak to a support agent. Even in the most expertly run organization, there will always be a lapse in quality control, shipping, or simply an off day that leads a customer to complain. However, how organizations deal with these complaints separates good businesses from great ones.

• In fact, inquiries over WhatsApp,

  Facebook Messenger, and regional favorites like WeChat or Line jumped 36% last year—higher than any other channel.

• If you want to increase customer retention, you need to prepare your reps for scenarios they’ll face with difficult or frustrated customers.
• Good service recovery can help you turn customers’ bad experiences into memorable ones.
• We take pride in providing quality products and services, and we are committed to resolving this issue as quickly as possible.
• If your reps aren’t consistently clear about response times, your customers may think you’ve forgotten about their case.

Every morning, millions of people around the world start their day with Kellogg’s breakfast cereals, but sometimes customers are left a little disappointed. Maybe their cereal isn’t up to the usual high standards they expect from Kellogg’s, or maybe they’re just struggling to find their favorite product. Whatever the issue, the brand is always on top of social media customer service, making sure that customers get answers to their questions and any problems are resolved professionally. When customers encounter difficulties with the service, they need to know they can get quick and reliable support from Western Union. You may need to ensure your customer support team trains regularly to maintain service standards.

Complaints Resolution Transformed: 3 Companies Implement Next-Gen Complaints Solution

The thing about saying “I’m sorry”  is that a lot of people won’t believe you – and even more importantly, you may not even mean it. Your goal is to genuinely want  to end your conversation with a sincere apology and yet appreciation for your customer. Let them know you’re sorry they were inconvenienced or disappointed or upset, then also thank them for giving you the chance to work it out with them.

By making an investment in their knowledge and skills, you’re enhancing not only their performance but also the entire customer experience. Different tags should have different levels of priority based on criteria such as time needed to respond, complexity of the problem, and the customer queries importance to both the customer and the business. Of course, not every customer service query can be handled with a template. To help you get started, we’ve collected 7 of the most effective and easy-to-implement techniques that you can use to respond quickly to your customers.

This can help manage their expectations and reduce their frustration. Last month, one of my support agents had a phone call with a very irate customer. The support rep handled herself very well and let him know that she wouldn’t be able to continue the conversation if he continued to yell at her.

To illustrate how the above steps may be put into practice, let’s take a look at an example of how to handle a customer complaint. In this example, let’s say you run a small business selling artisanal candles online. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. At the same time, offering an apology can be beneficial even in situations where you don’t feel like you were wrong.

This is often overlooked, which may result in catching the customer service agent off guard with questions to which you may not have the appropriate answer. Customer service issues, if left unattended, can be a frustrating experience for your client. Be proactive and keep your customers informed of how you aim to address their issues quickly. The success of your business will depend on how skillfully you handle your customer service problems. It’s expected that a customer would complain if a product breaks or if the service does not meet their expectation.

Customer service reps are only human and may not be able to offer a resolution of customer queries on the first contact. When customers have to chat or call the service department multiple times, it can be a hassle for them. Customers today expect communication with service departments to be instant. This is, indisputably, the first in the long list of the common problem with customer service that needs to be addressed by businesses.

Clear communication

Read about evolving customer expectations in the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2023 to stay one step ahead and prevent customer complaints. Additionally, global companies could try a follow-the-sun approach to customer service—a type of workflow in which customer issues can pass between offices in different time zones. Support agents are often the first line of defense when dealing with dissatisfied customers or consumer complaints. When your agents don’t have the right customer service skills for the job, it can leave a bad impression on buyers. Waiting to get a response about an issue is usually a very frustrating experience for customers. And over the years, customers’ expectations of how long a response should take have steadily increased.

If there’s anything else we can do to make your experience better, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If you have any detailed feedback or suggestions that you’d like to share with us, it would really help. Your thoughts and opinions are incredibly valuable to us, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to learn from your experience.

If the root cause is an issue with your current internal service processes, update them to make them more clear to the team and provide more training if necessary. When the workload spikes, whether due to seasonality, annual leave or sickness, having shared expertise across the team gives you the flexibility to handle increased customer requests. Cherry-picking the easy requests might help individuals respond quickly, but it doesn’t help achieve the team’s goals.

Inadequate communication

Any experience that they have is primarily a direct outcome of the quality and skill of the team. While it’s important to follow your company protocols and guidelines, it’s also important to be able to go the extra mile for your customers. Never offer a solution that you can’t follow through on, as that will only set you back. Perhaps offering a small gift card or a discount on future purchases will be enough to assuage the situation. You might also consider replacing the item for free or upgrading their future purchase or membership. In most instances, you can diffuse anger and frustration by remaining kind and understanding.

Did you roll out a new product feature that has a few bugs and is causing consistent complaints across the board? Maybe the details of the new feature were not communicated clearly to customers and are causing friction. Getting to the root of the issues will help you formulate a plan which we’ll cover next. For example, if customers report long call wait times, it could be that they are calling during peak times of the day when your service team is swamped with higher than normal call volumes. Now that you have a good grasp of the issues your customers are facing, it’s time to address the main causes. For example they may say longer call hold times, or report a bug with your product.

If the above does happen to you, you can assure your customer that customer service reps are receiving training. And be sure to address these kinds of issues with the employee as well. If a customer has complained, it means that they want their unique problem to be heard. Brushing off a customer complaint or failing to fully understand the problem can make the situation worse. So train the customer service reps at your company in active listening techniques that allow customers to feel heard and seen by your organization. When customers voice complaints, they often feel that their expectations haven’t been met in their interactions with your business.

Streamlined workflow ensures that incoming queries/issues don’t pile up. This helps enhance customer satisfaction and lowers your support team’s average resolution time. For long-term strategies beyond the initial resolution of complaints, companies typically implement a feedback loop into their customer service processes. This involves regularly reviewing the changes made in response to customer complaints, assessing their impact on customer satisfaction, and making further adjustments as necessary. You can also use software like Zight to create an easily accessible knowledge base or FAQ section. This could include screenshots, annotated images, and video guides addressing common customer queries.

For example, A person using a laptop might not like using their phone to contact customer care. And with cross-border ecommerce thriving today, some 58% of consumers have stated that shopping 24/7 is a critical factor for buying online. Thus, a global business would need 24/7 customer service, even on weekends, to meet customer needs. 86% are willing to spend more money when they feel they’ve had a good customer experience.

It’s about building a long-term relationship, one where each customer interaction offers opportunities for deeper, more valuable engagement. In a highly competitive, digital-first world, providing your customers with responsive, relevant support is more important than ever. New study shows integrated UCaaS and contact center platforms are among top trends to transform the customer experience.

It looks at not just the one-off response for a single customer, but the average response time for your entire department. If no resolution is available to make your customer happy or at the very least, content, then consider how else you can help them. Ask your local coffee shop to give these to you for free or at a reduced price as a gesture to get more people in their door.

Ticketing systems document incoming requests and make it easier for you to manage active service cases. And, you can integrate it with your CRM so tickets will be directly attached to customer profiles. Find out what their goals and needs are, then teach them how they can use the product to achieve success.

• Ultimately, customers  expect customer service to be close to  the product or service their company provides.
• Find out what integrations are available that you can implement with your customer service software.
• The customer not understanding the explanation of at least 3 goals is not beneficial to both parties; it is taking up the customer’s time.
• This provided an overview of how the support team was doing and made it easier to identify trends in customer feedback.
• In some cases, the product isn’t broken, rather, the customer doesn’t understand how to use it.

Secondly, they must be able to help them fix the issue in the most seamless and timely manner. Onboarding refers to the entire process of helping new customers understand how to use your products and services. Customer onboarding is crucial because it sets the foundation for their long-term association with your brand. In its traditional sense, it dates back to the time humans started trading.

Amidst the daily grind of managing a business, it can become difficult to keep a tab on the performance of your customer service agents and the quality of service provided by them. The next important thing is to invest in periodic training programs for both new as well as existing employees. These programs can empower your customer service team with the knowledge of new techniques, tools, and skills to better serve customers and enhance their experience. Gamifying customer service training is a great way to ensure the team grasps essential concepts and skills faster.

In fact, inquiries over WhatsApp,

Facebook Messenger, and regional favorites like WeChat or Line jumped 36% last year—higher than any other channel. At Magnolia—the retail and experience empire built by HGTV favorites Chip and Joanna Gaines—number of tickets solved or time to resolution are not brand-right or even accurate indicators of success. Years ago, when a support ticket was opened when a problem started and closed when it was solved, a quick diagnosis made more sense. For a modern support operation, taking the time to set customers up for success is necessary follow-through. Maybe that means asking why they didn’t check the box, or taking the time to explain the important actions that are touched off when they do. If customers required assistance, they had to return to the store during its normal hours of operation, despite any inconvenience to them.

That way, your customers are connected directly to reps who are best suited to resolve their problems. If you want to increase customer retention, you need to prepare your reps for scenarios they’ll face with difficult or frustrated customers. In this post, we’ll break down the different types of customers complaints as well as the steps your team can take to resolve each one. We reached out to Stein Ove Sektnan, manager of customer service at SuperOffice, to get his input on how to reduce response times. CMO council found that the most important attribute of a good customer experience, according to the customers’ themselves, is a fast response time. Average first response time is one of the most important customer service reports used to understand how you are performing.

Let us show you how our conversational AI chatbot and cloud contact center can help. When you find a great customer service employee, it’s important to communicate that to them. Show you trust their skills by empowering them to resolve issues on their own, with the right tools and access to information, of course. The customer may be angry or pleasant, have a simple or complex issue, or maybe ask a question the representative has never had to answer before. Agents who take it all in stride and handle each call with confidence and expertise are an asset to your company. You can also learn more about customers’ sentiments toward your company through external sources.

He is a Help Scout alum, where he worked to help improve the agent and customer experience. When customers make these types of requests, it shows they’re invested in your company and engaged with what you’re doing, so it’s good to show gratitude. The biggest bucket of complaints you’ll get are ones tied directly to your products and services. These requests could be about things like a product lacking a certain function, feature or service requests, bug reports, and other things in that realm. If the customer has an issue with your product or service, having to jump through hoops to get it resolved will only create more frustration.