Effective complaints resolution leads to customer retention

Following on an earlier article by getclosure, explaining how to harness the power of feedback, we have put together some handy pointers to keep in mind when dealing with your customers’ complaints and an example to show how effective this strategy can be.


1. Respond to your customers’ complaints as soon as possible.

Results from a recent Nielsen survey indicate that reports of bad experiences outnumber good customer service reports by as much as 5:1. Couple that with the increasing proliferation and popularity of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and you’ll have an idea of the potential damage that negative comments from your disgruntled customers may cause.

2. Ask for any necessary information on the first point of contact, such as account number, date and time of incident.

Make sure that you keep a record of all relevant details so that you can refer back to them at a later date.

3. Remain calm, polite and professional.

This is essential to win back your customers’ respect and restore their faith in your brand. Another thing to keep in mind is that in some sectors, it costs up to five times more to win a new client than to retain an existing one, so it is definitely worth making an effort the first time around!

4. Apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Remember that regardless of the situation, a sincere apology will go along way towards making amends.

5. Manage your customer’s expectations – give them a realistic estimate of when you will respond/ resolve the situation.

getclosure sales and marketing manager, Richard Wright says, “The effectiveness of the getclosure complaints management system can largely be attributed to the fact that we provide our users with regular and informative updates. This ensures that consumers are kept up to speed on the progress of their complaints, and suppliers have the opportunity to respond as soon as their customers submit feedback.”

6. If the matter needs to be investigated and takes longer than initially anticipated, keep the customer continuously informed by providing the necessary feedback.
Here is an example to demonstrate some of these points. Paul submitted a complaint about his cell phone service provider on getclosure and gave the following feedback once the problem had been resolved: “Thanks for your quick and speedy response. You've done a lot to improve my impression of your company - I told the whole office about how great it was to have a company actually call and care about service like that. I was really impressed by the phone call I got. Oddly enough how you handled my complaint has actually improved my opinion of your company tremendously. Thanks for the call and the information on how and why it happened.”


Contact richard@getclosure.co.za to find out more about the getclosure service and how it can be used to track, manage and respond to your customers’ complaints in a discreet environment.


(Source: Guest blogger, Proudly South African member company, getclosure)