Your customers are your purest grade of quality command. Without their approval, your business doesn't abound and succeed. And then, when customers accept a complaint information technology'south important to hear them out because these are opportunities to improve the customer experience and prevent potential churn.

No matter which manufacture you're in, you're going to deal with customer complaints. Even if your business doesn't make a mistake, i of your customers will eventually hitting a roadblock that leads them to your client service team. These are the situations where your service reps make or break the customer'south journey.

If you want to increase client retention, you need to set up your reps for scenarios they'll face with hard or frustrated customers. In this post, we'll break down the different types of customers complaints equally well as the steps your squad tin can accept to resolve each one.

  • Types of customer complaints
  • Customer complaint resolution techniques

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Below are a few common customer complaints yous tin can expect your service squad to meet.

ane. Long Wait on Hold

If your team works in a telephone call center, Average Time on Agree (ATH) is ane of your most of import telephone call center metrics. Customers want fast answers and can't afford to spend their afternoon with a telephone glued to their ear. In fact, studies show that afterward near two minutes, customers are likely to hang up the phone and 34% of those customers won't call back. That ways y'all tin potentially lose a third of your customer base just because you didn't pick upwards the telephone fast enough.

How to resolve this customer complaint:

Long concord times indicate two problems. First, it could mean that your customer demand is too high for your customer service team. In this case, you should consider hiring more reps to meet the needs of your phone call center. In the meantime, your reps should apologize for the long wait times and piece of work to ensure first telephone call resolution.

The other outcome may be that your telephone call center lacks automation. Call eye software tin can provide your service squad with features that streamline operations and complete tasks automatically. Past adopting this technology, you lot can optimize your squad's product past removing menial tasks from their day-to-day workflow. This should reduce agree time complaints and create a more satisfying service experience.

2. Unavailable or Out of Stock Production

Information technology's usually a good sign when a product goes out of stock, but if it stays out of stock, customers can become impatient for its return. They may demand a special order or repeatedly telephone call for product updates. This typically indicates a time-sensitive need for your production which should be fulfilled immediately.

How to resolve this customer complaint:

As a customer service rep, you might not accept whatsoever say in when a new shipment will be ordered. Reps should written report these issues to their managers who tin can notify both sales and production direction teams. Service reps should encourage customers to remain patient and let them know that they'll attain out when the shipment arrives. This type of proactive customer service will assure customers that you're aware of their time-sensitive needs.

iii. Repeating the Customer'due south Problem

Customers hate repeating their problems to your reps. This happens when they're either transferred to new reps or dealing with an amanuensis who isn't paying shut attending. When customers have to describe their issue multiple times, it'south both a frustrating and fourth dimension-consuming experience.

How to resolve this customer complaint:

If a customer is complaining almost having to repeat their issue, the best step yous can take is to stop transferring their telephone call. Fifty-fifty if you need to connect the customer with a specialist, reach out to that agent internally and see if you can relay the advice. This may be more than tiresome, only information technology will see the customer's immediate needs.

A long-term solution to this problem is to invest in help desk software. A help desk-bound can manage and distribute incoming service requests to the most ideal agents. That manner, your customers are continued direct to reps who are best suited to resolve their problems.

4. Uninterested Service Rep

Whether it's their tone, personality, or even just the time of day, some customers simply won't go along with your customer service reps. When a rep fails to meet their needs, some customers recall it'south due to a lack of interest in their case. Sometimes this is true, other times customers have expectations that are college than what your team can provide. Regardless of where the fault lies, when your reps fail to announced invested, your business's reputation takes the hit.

How to resolve this customer complaint:

When dealing with this type of client complaint, reps should consider what they can practice to provide above-and-beyond customer service. Every business has protocol, but information technology'south sometimes worth angle the rules if that means preventing customer churn. At the very least, reps should pay attention to their tone and torso linguistic communication to ensure they're displaying a motivated and circumspect demeanor.

If a customer does report an issue with a rep, management should always investigate the outcome. Managers should give their reps the do good of the dubiousness but try to go every possible detail. Rather than criticizing the rep'south arroyo, look for opportunities to teach the amanuensis nigh preventing these types of situations. If these issues continue to occur, it may be time to take more than severe actions.

5. Poor Product or Service

When your product breaks, y'all tin can look the client to complain. In some cases, the product isn't cleaved, rather, the customer doesn't understand how to use it. Other times, customers aren't a good fit for your production or service, simply they blame your company for declining to fulfill their needs. No affair how customers arrive at this conclusion, your squad needs to know how to foreclose them from turning to your competitors.

How to resolve this client complaint:

If the product isn't broken, educate the customer. Notice out what their goals and needs are, then teach them how they can utilise the product to accomplish success. If the product is cleaved, provide options for firsthand replacement and effort to determine how information technology broke. If information technology was user mistake, gently signal out to the customer how they can avert this outcome in the time to come.

For a long-term solution, consider adopting client feedback tools to survey customers virtually your product. Y'all can use NPS® surveys to measure customer satisfaction and larn how you tin raise your product'southward features. These feedback tools provide both quantitative and qualitative information that you can use to improve product development.

6. No Outset Call Resolution

When customers call your service team, they look their outcome to be resolved later on the first phone call. Studies testify that 67% of customer churn is avoided if the service request is fulfilled during the first interaction. While that doesn't mean you lot should hold customers on the phone, information technology does mean that they should be pursuing first call resolutions.

How to resolve this client complaint:

When your reps begin a customer interaction, they should brand note of the case's urgency. If the customer has fourth dimension-sensitive needs, try to resolve the case in the showtime call simply don't waste fourth dimension repeating steps or researching irrelevant information. If your reps don't have the answer, they should enquire politely to follow up and explain why that process volition yield a faster resolution.

One way you lot tin can improve first telephone call resolution rates is to add self-service support options to your company's website. Tools similar community forums and a noesis base of operations tin assistance customers detect their ain solutions and avoid service calls birthday. This creates a more enjoyable and convenient service feel for your customers.

vii. Lack of Follow Up

When you practice have to follow up on a example, customers will often accept different expectations for follow-upward communication. Some customers will look an ongoing chain of updates while others will be more than patient. If your reps aren't consistently clear nearly response times, your customers may recall you've forgotten nigh their example.

How to resolve this customer complaint:

If y'all practise have to follow upwardly on a case, your service rep should brand communication expectations articulate. Inquire the client if the proposed frequency works for them, and if not, establish a system that works for both your rep and the customer. Your reps should be defended to customer needs, simply customers have to give your reps space to work on the event independently. If your reps are constantly providing updates, customers will await longer for solutions.

If your team is having trouble keeping rail of follow up, you lot should consider adopting a ticketing system. Ticketing systems document incoming requests and make information technology easier for you lot to manage agile service cases. And, you can integrate it with your CRM and then tickets will be directly attached to customer profiles.

eight. New Product or Feature Request

This one isn't necessarily a complaint but is something that client service teams encounter on a daily ground. If your product or service doesn't run into all of your customers' needs, they'll ask if they tin propose a new product or characteristic. While some of these are helpful, most fulfill specific apply-cases that don't apply to the majority of your client base.

How to resolve this customer complaint:

In these cases, you should have a self-service space where your reps can direct these requests to. These product requests are valuable, but you lot tin can't afford to have reps spending their day listening to customer ideas. Create a forum where customers can post these ideas for your production development team to see. This will give your team an opportunity to comment and appoint with customers who want to improve your product.

Client Complaint Resolution

Customer complaint resolution is the process of receiving negative feedback, investigating the crusade of the issue, and resolving the problem — all while communicating to the customer in a mode that makes them feel heard.

Resolution treatment with the goal of turning dissatisfied customers into glowing evangelists of your service experience comes down to these techniques:

i. Exist accessible.

If the customer has an issue with your product or service, having to jump through hoops to go information technology resolved will only create more frustration.

Go far easy to solve issues by providing self-service options and beingness easy to connect with beyond channels.

2. Apply active listening to sympathize their complaint.

The best thing you can do for a dissatisfied client is to actively mind and engage with them.

  • Ask clarifying questions.
  • Stay focused on their needs.
  • Empathize with them.

3. Acknowledge their frustration.

The best thing yous can do for a dissatisfied customer is acknowledge their frustration and validate their feelings. Empathy is ane of the most important client service skills, and acknowledging their frustration helps them feel heard and appreciated.

four. Reiterate for clarity and agreement.

Show that you were listening by stating their issue back to them. By doing this, you're confirming your understanding and getting approval from the customer.

5. Seek a first-phone call resolution.

With more contact attempts in pursuit of a solution comes more friction. With more friction comes more than frustration.

For a truly stellar customer feel, all try should be made to completely resolve the issue during the first phone call. Not but does information technology increment customer satisfaction, only information technology also reduces the load on the support squad as a whole.

6. Provide a programme of action.

If y'all're unable to provide a solution on their first call, set expectations for what comes next.

  • Will they hear dorsum from y'all?
  • When?
  • What will you be doing in the concurrently? (getting necessary data, etc.)

If you know that their problem is ane that has no solution due to limitations of your system or another reason, acknowledge their frustration and detail what actions yous're taking based on their feedback (forwarding their concerns to the appropriate department, escalating the ticket, etc.).

In the end, not all customer complaints will be resolved to the client'due south satisfaction, and some customers may still walk abroad upset. However, it'due south upwardly to you to provide a great experience to reduce these instances where you can.

Internet Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

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Editor's note: This postal service was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Originally published Aug 13, 2020 8:00:00 AM, updated August 27 2021