Leverage Customer Service Complaints to Grow Your Business

May 15, 2018

If you thought customer service complaints were bad for business, think again! While you don’t want to consistently earn bad testimonials, there is a way that you can turn a customer complaint or bad review into a loyal customer and positive marketing tool.

The key is understanding how to turn customer service complaints into opportunities.

How to Accept Negative Criticism Constructively

As your businesses grows, you will inevitably encounter a disgruntled consumer. When this happens, the last thing you should ever do is disregard it.

Founder of ThinkJar, LLC Estaban Kolsky reported that:

84% of consumers get frustrated when their agent can’t provide the information they want
13% of consumers will tell 15 people or more about a negative experience
67% of consumers cite bad experiences as a reason for churn

Some companies grow defensive when they receive negative feedback, but in reality, these moments are an opportunity for growth. Customer complaints can expose areas of improvement for your company’s services and operations, and help you improve your processes.

When complaints come to your call center, make sure you:

Resolve the customer’s complaint as soon as possible
Assess the complaint to determine whether it is a trend within the business
Meet with your managers and staff to discuss any changes that can help prevent this problem in the future

How to Resolve a Customer Services Complaints the Right Way

American Express did a survey that reported 78% of consumers bail on a service or transaction due to a poor service experience.

Don’t become part of that statistic.

How you respond to customer service complaints as they come in is extremely important. The consumer already has a negative outlook, so you never want to make it worse.

In order to pave the way to happiness, make sure you respond quickly. Whether the feedback comes through as a call or an online review, your prompt reply tells them that you care about their concerns.

Listen with empathy and apologize for the inconvenience or bad experience. Show that their satisfaction matters to your business.

Then make sure that you present a solution. Never leave a problem unresolved! Whatever remedy you come up with, it should be quick to deliver and meet the client’s needs so that they are satisfied with the end result.

The Benefits of Following Up with a Dissatisfied Customer

So why put in all this effort for one unhappy consumer? The answer is simple: it’s an opportunity to turn an upsetting experience into a loyal, long-term customer simply by taking care of them.

When you look at customer service complaints as business opportunities, you open up new doors for repeat business and growth.

But what if they share their bad experience online? No problem! By responding to an online complaint quickly while expressing empathy and offering a solution, you can showcase how your company is dedicated to resolving negative experiences.

This turns a bad experience into a positive one, while in turn provides future consumers who read your response peace of mind.

For more information on how you can improve your customers’ service experience, be sure to check out our blog.

Devin Bailey

I've been in the call center industry for over a decade. A big part of my job is educating businesses on the role telecommunications and outsourced task procedures can play for their business. Understanding their processes is critical to verify and implement the right services. When I am not in front of clients I manage the technological infrastructure in the call center.