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How should you respond to complaints and commendations from someone who used your service?
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Quick reference
Commendations and Complaints
How should you respond to complaints and commendations from customers who used your service?
When to use
Use this section to answer written feedback about the type of service provided by your company
Main Points
Commendations
Responses to written commendation should include:
- a statement stating your pleasure at getting the feedback
- an acknowledgment that they took the time to let you know
- an explicit statement about the specific action that made them happy
- a promise to share their comments with the staff members concerned
Complaints
Responses to written complaints should include:
- an apology
- an acknowledgment that they took the time to let you know
- a request for details if the complaint is vague
- an explanation of why the problem occurred, without being defensive
- a solution or remedy
- positive language, focusing on what you CAN, instead of what you CANNOT do
- appreciation for the feedback
- 00:05 When a customer sends a written commendation,
- 00:07 that's a very special correspondence.
- 00:10 Not just because it's a commendation and it makes you feel good, but
- 00:14 people are busy, and most people don't like to write.
- 00:17 And also because people believe they deserve good service anyway.
- 00:21 It takes something extra special for
- 00:23 them to carve out some time to let you know about it.
- 00:26 You exceeded their expectation on that occasion.
- 00:29 So, how should you respond?
- 00:32 Your response should indirectly encourage more of this kind of feedback.
- 00:36 Here's the formula.
- 00:37 One, you want to let them know how pleased you are to get the feedback.
- 00:42 Two, you should acknowledge that they took the time to tell you how they feel.
- 00:48 Three, specifically mention the action that made them happy.
- 00:51 And four, promise to share their comments with the staff members concerned.
- 00:57 Now, what about complaints?
- 00:59 They're are special category too.
- 01:01 We tend to get more of those than commendations, but
- 01:04 that's a feature of the human experience.
- 01:07 If someone does what's expected, then we don't give it a second thought.
- 01:11 But if they fall short of that expectation, that sits with us for
- 01:14 a longer time, and we're motivated to do something about it.
- 01:19 Remember, we mentioned earlier that feedback is a gift,
- 01:22 this is especially true for complaints.
- 01:25 That's because for every 100 dissatisfied customers,
- 01:28 only about four take the time to complain to the service provider.
- 01:33 This means that for every four complaints you have to respond to,
- 01:37 there are about 96 more out there who haven't told you,
- 01:40 but most of them won't come back and you'll have no idea why.
- 01:45 They'll also probably tell their family, friends or
- 01:48 social media contacts about the bad experience.
- 01:51 And that potentially influences the perception of people
- 01:54 who haven't even done business with your company.
- 01:58 So, when you do get a complaint,
- 02:00 you're getting a chance to fix something that maybe you didn't know is a problem,
- 02:04 or that may be a bigger problem than you realize.
- 02:08 Written complaints usually take the form of an email or a letter.
- 02:13 Sometimes, customers aren't even specific about what made them upset.
- 02:17 So, let's figure out how to respond to these complaints.
- 02:21 Responding to customer complaints involves the following elements, one, an apology.
- 02:27 Two, empathy or acknowledgement.
- 02:30 Three, if they weren't specific then we should be requesting details that
- 02:35 will help us to investigate the problem.
- 02:38 Four, we should explain why the problem happened without being defensive about it.
- 02:44 Five, our response should offer a solution.
- 02:47 Six, we should use positive language by focusing on what we can,
- 02:53 instead of what we can't do.
- 02:57 And seven, we should express appreciation for the feedback.
- 03:01 In responding to customer complaints, a warm and sincere tone is really important
- 03:07 and is usually conveyed with words like really, very, right away, sorry.
- 03:14 Customers prefer these everyday words in an apology because words and
- 03:19 phrases like absolutely, truly apologize, kindly,
- 03:23 they tend to sound scripted and less sincere.
- 03:27 And here's a golden tip, if it's practical,
- 03:30 offer to notify the customer when the issue is fixed.
- 03:34 And by all means, do follow up.
- 03:36 If you're not sure that you can deliver on that promise,
- 03:39 just do it without promising.
- 03:41 Because if you offer to follow up, but then you don't, that's another broken
- 03:45 promise, and it's just more ammunition for another complaint.
- 03:49 When you under promise and over deliver, you're far more likely to win over
- 03:54 a dissatisfied customer than if you break another promise.
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