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Imagine a situation where you ordered a size 9 shoe, and you got a size 10 shoe instead. A customer would be mad at that situation. Now put yourself in that customer’s shoes; how infuriated would you be? That is the very essence of customer complaints.
Many times orders are misdelivered or the service takes too long, and customers are not happy with the situation. Hence, this is where customer complaints should be handled properly and swiftly.
Thus, let’s talk about customer complaints, the different types of them, how to analyze and handle them, including examples, and more.
Customer complaints are negative criticisms about a business when it fails to meet the standards to provide the best experience to consumers. This sort of feedback can come in many forms and is usually received through surveys, private messages, customer service tools like live chat or chatbots, email, and more.
Unfortunately for businesses, complaints are unavoidable. There will be some gaps or missteps with service that customers will complain about. However, that makes it even more important that businesses take note and fix the issues to improve their service in general.
There are many reasons why customers complain. Hence, here are ten different types of customer complaints that your business will generally face.
The most common type of customer complaint is whenever a business suffers from poor service or bad products. Either reason will anger customers, and you will get droves of complaints.
There are always some shortcomings regarding service or products, so this kind of complaint is unavoidable for a business. All you can do is do your best and ensure quality to limit these types of customer complaints.
Imagine a case where you have to wait in line for 10 to 15 minutes just to check out some groceries. That would make you quite irritated and complain about the situation, and that’s quite normal.
No customer wants to wait too long for a service, checkout, phone call, etc. So, it is important that these problems are addressed by a business.
We have all dealt with some form of automated systems, particularly on service numbers for banks or such companies. It is a way of streamlining customer support and directing customers to the right departments. However, these systems can be poorly implemented and can cause many troubles, like long waiting times, complex options, and the like.
An extremely frustrating experience for customers is when they get conflicting information from two employees in the same business. This typically occurs when employees are not aligned with what the business is offering or is all about.
Thus, this gives customers a motive to complain as they are being fed the wrong information. Such a situation can be very detrimental to your business.
The easiest way to tick off customers is to be rude, and having uncooperative agents can do just that. When your agents are not friendly or forthright, customers get the idea that you are not interested in serving them, leading to complaints and ultimately customer churn.
Proper training for your agents is important in this regard so that they are friendly and use the right tone when communicating with customers.
A problem that can occur when dealing with customers is completely neglecting their requests. This can happen accidentally or, in rare cases, intentionally due to prejudice from past experiences.
Thus, this means customers feel like they are being ignored and their requests or issues still persist. Hence, customers are disgruntled, and businesses run the risk of churning them out.
When it comes to solving problems, you should always follow up with customers to ensure that their issues are fixed. If you do not follow up with customer requests, it sends a bad message, and that leads to complaints.
When your business serves a global audience, it is important to have a customer service system that can handle queries 24/7. However, just having a limited time of service when serving a global audience means that some customers are not getting their requests addressed.
It’s not a great idea for a business to only rely on live service or automated solutions. Thus, there should be some form of self-service options, like a Help Page for general questions and the like.
Lacking these features just makes it inconvenient for your customers, as they have to contact you constantly to fix a simple problem, ultimately leading to complaints.
One of the worst things you can do in terms of customer support is make your customers repeat their problems to you time and time again. This can be due to a decentralized support system where requests across multiple platforms are not shared. This will naturally make customers angry, and they will resort to constant complaints.
Before we jump into the process of handling customer complaints, let’s talk about the benefits of doing so.
Customer satisfaction metrics are one of the key indicators of judging how a business is performing, and handling complaints ensures the metrics are great. Thus, resolving problems means customers are more happy and your business flourishes.
When customers are happy, they will be more loyal to your business. This means customer retention is high and your business is successful in terms of consistent sales and revenue stream.
When you handle complaints effectively, it sends a strong message to your current and future customers that you are here for them. This increases your business’s reputation and improves your brand.
When customers are satisfied and your brand reputation is high, your overall marketing strategies have better results. Happy customers attract new ones, and everyone recognizes your brand. Thus, it increases customer acquisition for your business in the long run.
With every other point above, your business creates an image of being customer-centric and shows you are available to solve their issues. Thus, customers are more likely to provide feedback, which you can use to improve your business.
Now that we know about the different types of complaints, let’s talk about how we can make use of this information. Using the different reasons for complaints, your business can create a plan to analyze and handle requests. First, let’s talk about the analysis part.
To analyze customer complaints, we have an approach for you that can help you organize and handle requests easily. Here are the steps for the process:
The last step is where you start handling customer complaints and resolving them. Let’s transition to that section.
To handle complaints, you must first analyze the problems. Then, you follow a step-by-step approach to resolve the grievances one at a time. One thing to remember is that each complaint should be handled differently, and the process should also change depending on the type of customer you are dealing with.
The first thing you should do is to understand the type of customer you are communicating with or resolving an issue for. According to a University of Florida paper, there are five types of customers:
Irrespective of the type of customer you are dealing with, listening to them first about their problems and feedback is important. Through that, you can categorize and analyze their feedback and move towards a resolution.
While it is important to listen to the customer, it is equally important to converse with the customer swiftly. This gives customers a sense of you actively engaging with them.
Utilizing REVE Chat’s live chat and chatbot solutions, you can improve the speed of your responses. Also, using our overall platform can help you connect to customers proactive and send personalized messages.
After listening to their concerns, it’s paramount that you are empathetic about their problems. Use the right tone and acknowledge their frustrations and apologize for the inconveniences they have faced.
Next, you ask for more information about your customers’ problems. This hinges on asking the appropriate questions relevant to the issue at hand. Doing so allows you to identify their pain points and provide the best solution to your customers.
Transparency is important for a good customer service solution. It is important to be forthright with your customers by giving them a timeline to solve the problem, providing updates, involving the right personnel, and so on.
After gathering all the information and hearing your customers’ feedback, you provide the right solution for their issues. Depending on the type of problem, the solution can change and it is key that you provide the best possible answer to their issues.
Once the problem has been fixed, follow up with the customer and ensure that they have checked if the problem persists. Communicate with them until they are happy with your solution. This ensures that customer satisfaction stays high.
Lastly, make sure to record the complaint and solution. Your business can use this as a possible pathway for future problems of the same nature. Also, it helps you to analyze your businesses’ shortcomings and fix any issues that may cause future inconveniences.
With all the information listed above about the different types of complaints and how to handle them, let’s look at some examples that your business can encounter and some solutions. To provide more clarity, we are giving examples based on different industries.
For e-commerce businesses, the following complaints are the likeliest to be encountered.
E-commerce platforms are prone to sending the wrong orders.
Example: A customer has ordered one lipstick from your shop, and you instead sent them a lip liner. That customer will immediately contact you and air their frustrations.
Solution: You should apologize for the inconvenience and deliver them the right product. Also, offering compensation for the issue also alleviates the customers’ frustration. To prevent such future problems, you can use an AI Agent like ours to automatically take the right order and deliver the right products to the customer.
This is also typical for an e-commerce business to fail to deliver products on time. Thus, customers make a complaint as follows:.
Example: A customer will contact your customer service platform to find out when their order will arrive. This complaint could be sent via live chat or chatbot, which we provide for businesses.
Solution: Always apologize for the issue and ask the relevant teams to find out the status of the order. Then, relay back the information with an updated timeline of when the product will receive the order. Follow up in the future to find out if the customer has received the product and is happy with it.
For the telecom business, the following scenarios are the most likely.
Sometimes purchasing a plan fails, and that can leave customers frustrated.
Example: A customer checks their balance and then tries to buy a plan. The plan purchase fails despite the sufficient amount of balance remaining.
Solution: You should ask questions about the remaining balance, the plan purchase that was attempted, and more. If the wrong type of plan was being purchased, you should suggest a more appropriate plan. In case of an error, fix the issue by involving the relevant team. Follow up and ensure that the customer is happy.
There are also some situations where the network fails in certain areas for unknown reasons.
Example: A customer’s network signal is weak all of a sudden, and they complain to the customer support center.
Solution: You should ask their whereabouts and check whether there are any network outages. Solve the problem swiftly if there is a problem, and then follow up to see if the issue has been fixed for the user.
BFSI companies get their fair share of complaints, and here are some examples.
Sometimes certain transactions can be delayed due to a number of reasons, increasing customer frustrations.
Example: A customer was supposed to receive a bank transfer, but it has been delayed for several days now. So they contact the bank’s live support system.
Solution: You should ask for their account and transfer details first. Then, check with the relevant teams and internal systems for the progress of the transfer. After that, resolve the issue if possible, provide an update to the customer, and give a proper timeline if the issue resolution will take time.
In many cases, financial institutions can give poor service, and customers can complain about that.
Example: A customer asks for financial details, and the information is not properly conveyed to the user.
Solution: Ask the customer for relevant queries and collect the information they need to provide to them. Next, follow up after some time to see if the information you provided helped and if they need any further assistance.
Here are some tips for customer service agents as to how to handle customer complaints.
Showing that you are empathetic helps, and it starts with apologizing for the problem the customer is facing. Being forthright with that helps the conversation flow better and provides the right solution.
Hear what the customer has to say and log everything. This shows the customer that you are dedicated to solving their problem with haste. Also, it helps to provide the right solution and involve the right teams to solve the issue at hand.
It’s also important to ask and understand what the customer wants. Instead of providing a solution of your choice, the customer can guide you to what they want, helping you to choose the right fix for the issue.
Always communicate with the customer swiftly and ensure that you do not delay messages. This keeps the conversation ongoing and helps with resolving the problem for the customer without adding more to their frustrations.
It is important to maintain a professional demeanor when it comes to providing a solution to a problem. Regardless of how the customer acts, it is important for your agent to stay calm and converse in a friendly manner to solve the problem as soon as possible.
Yes, customer complaints can really impact businesses. But it’s not because customer complaints are nice to receive, but the negative feedback can help your business improve. Customer complaints help a business.
Customer complaints allow businesses to improve and upgrade services and products. The negative feedback from customers helps identify lackings in products and services for future improvement.
Customer complaints help identify the problems in your customer service. It could be a lack of agents or training of employees. Thus, businesses can use such feedback to improve this part of the business.
With an ever-changing world, customer complaints can highlight outdated policies. Also, a business can get an idea of which direction old policies should be updated and what sort of new ones should be put in place.
Using all these three points, you can improve services, products, and your overall business in the long run. Thus, taking customer complaints can help your business ascend to a new level and help you address problems that you may not have noticed.
Thus, customer complaints are a natural part of businesses, as all of them have to encounter this feedback to differing degrees. It is not always about how many complaints you receive; it is also about how you resolve them.
Thus, making use of the right tools and approaching the situation with the right mindset is important. For tools, live chat and chatbot solutions can really help, and that’s what we, REVE Chat, provide.
Our solution allows businesses to automate tasks, respond swiftly, and solve problems efficiently. Also, using our tools, your agents can provide better support through our omnichannel solution and multilingual support.
So, sign up now to see how our platform can help your business.
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Ehsanur Rahman, the Head of Customer Communication at REVE Chat is dedicated to implementing advanced solutions that boost customer interactions and satisfaction. Ehsanur's passion for technology and customer service drives his commitment to delivering exceptional experiences.
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