Customer Service - Handling Complaints

The expression ‘- A complaint is an opportunity’ may seem like a slogan, but there’s a lot of truth in it.

Of course we don’t want customers to be unhappy or upset . And yet: a complaint is indeed an opportunity. When a customer takes the trouble to express their dissatisfaction, it offers you the opportunity to offer a solution and keep the customer. You can also learn from complaints on how to do better in the future. Successful businesses and companies value customers’ feedback and use it to further optimise their services and products.

Did you know that of all dissatisfied customers, only 1 in 20, on average, actually report a complaint to the provider? That means that only 5% of all unhappy customers take the trouble to effectively complain.

You probably didn’t expect this percentage. Maybe you’re thinking: “If there’s a problem, we will know immediately from our customers”. Really? Research shows that for every customer who complains, there are 19 others who are unhappy and still don’t complain.

There are many reasons why unhappy customers don’t complain.

» They don’t want to get into a discussion.
» They don’t have the time and postpone it for later and then forget.
» They might say ‘I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt’.
» They don’t expect a solution anyway.
» They don’t want to come across as difficult.
» They think their complaint will not be handled anyway.


Although customers have reason to complain, they often don’t express their dissatisfaction with the company in question.

Their dissatisfied feeling lingers, or worse, they complain to everyone who wants to hear it. Research has shown that dissatisfied customers share their displeasure with about 10 others.
A satisfied customer only shares it with 3 others. Don’t forget that it’s very easy to share your opinion through social media these days.

So, it’s in our interest to make sure we turn this unhappy customer into a satisfied customer (again) as soon as possible.
And in order to do that, we need to know what is wrong. If the customer doesn’t tell us, we can’t solve it. That is why it’s fair to say that a complaint is indeed an opportunity. An invitation to do better.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
   / @expertenglish  

Read my blog:
https://www.expertacademy.be/en/blog​

Take my e-course:
https://expertacademy.teachable.com/c...