Just like Flavio Martins mentions in his article, Why Bad Customer Service Experiences Happen: “It’s inevitable that customer service experiences will sometimes fail.” It happens even to companies that are the best in customer experience.
But they are the best for a reason, they know how to act and solve the situations where they fail. Do you have a plan to manage bad customer experiences? Discuss with your Contact Center team and define what will you do. You can think of many ways to do it and here we can help you with 5 basic recommendations to manage these kinds of situations.
Listen
Listen carefully, but not only to your customers, also to your contact center agents. Be prepared to hear the two versions of the story to have a better perspective on the problem and offer the right solution. To do that, before contacting the customer, take some time to speak with the agent or person involved in the issue. Then, when you speak with the customer, let them speak without interrupting and make questions that let you look into the problem and try to get an answer on what the customer expects, needs, or wants.
Respond Quickly
Communication should be easy at any time and even more when there’s a problem. Sometimes, what makes customers angrier is not getting a prompt or any response to their concerns. For this, it’s important to have a process and/or system in place that lets you address the negative feedback, make sure the customers can connect easily with the company, and that contact center agents have the customer’s information, specifically about the issue if possible, so they can be prepared when talking to the customer. It’s also important to understand the communication channels offered to our customers and the response time expected from each channel. While it could take about 24 hours to get an answer via e-mail, it could only take a couple of minutes via social media or live chat.
Monetize Your Apology
In most cases, giving something free to customers makes them feel appreciated. But it’s crucial to understand that it is not the solution for every situation. It depends on the industry, on the problem, and the kind of gift you are giving. For example, in the B2B industry, it’s not always well-seen to receive gifts. You also need to be careful of not giving something every time, keep a record of the things you offer too. But when appropriate, it’s a good way to incentivize your customers to keep choosing you and know that you value them.
Escalate The Issue
If the customer needs a solution you can’t offer or if you couldn’t solve the problem by yourself, escalate it. It’s fine to accept that sometimes the problem is out of our hands and find help from supervisors, managers, or even directors. Sometimes we can’t offer what the customer needs or in other cases the issue can turn delicate and it’s better for the customer to speak with upper management. To avoid using this option, it’s important to empower your agents and let them know this resource should only be used when it’s really needed.
Read: 8 Horrifying Phrases You Never Want To Hear In Your Call Center
Follow Up
Never forget to follow up. Make sure that the problem was correctly solved, and that the customer is satisfied with the solution, even if you transfer the issue to another person or department. But do it soon. You can give a follow up call or send a survey to the customer to know about his or her experience. And, very important, take actions where needed so the problem doesn’t happen again to any customer.
BONUS
In situations of bad customer service issues, you might also need to know how to deal with angry customers. We really like the tactic mentioned by Steve DiGioia in the 5 Steps for Responding to an Angry Customer article:
Respond with your HEART
- Hear
- Empathize
- Apologize
- Resolve
- Thank
Now you know some of the basic but essential things you can do to manage customer complaints. Now take some time to develop a plan so you can keep offering a great customer experience.
Call Center Services International‘s model allows you to have complete control of your Nearshore Mexico Contact Center by mirroring your Customer Service processes and best practices while making sure your operational goals are met with professional, bilingual, and bicultural agents. Contact us today to request pricing.