Tips on Improving Customer Service in Your Small Business

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If you ever have to handle customer complaints, remember the power you hold to turn a negative situation into a positive one. How you respond to the complaint and the person issuing the complaint can determine whether the outcome is an amicable resolution to the problem or an endless battle of wits (or half-wits, depending). Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Consider the source. If the complaint is from a relatively levelheaded person, focus on the facts and steer toward a solution. Chronic complainers, on the other hand, are more often driven by emotion than fact. They may want attention more than solutions, and listening and sounding sympathetic may do more to appease them than a perfect solution.
   
   
2. Don't interrupt. People in mid-complaint are often not predisposed to hearing another perspective till they've finished venting. Besides, while sounding off, they sometimes defuse their own anger or figure out a way to solve the problem themselves. They may also reveal what they'd like the solution to be <96> and that solution may be a simpler one than any you might have offered. Listening to the entire complaint not only gives you time to plan your response, it gives you more information to work with.
   
   
3. Demonstrate that you've really listened. Restate some of what you heard. Emphasize the points that seemed most important to the person. Ask for confirmation that you understood. It's a two-part process: listening for understanding, and being sure the person knows you listened and understood.
   
   
4. Resist the temptation to disagree. This is difficult, especially if you feel you've been unfairly accused. It's natural to want to defend your position, but by challenging the perspective of the person making the complaint, you risk escalating the problem. Instead, try to state the case objectively, and focus on a solution.
   
   
5. If the complaint is valid, say so. Customers are so used to hearing others deny responsibility for their errors that you can take them totally by surprise by saying, "Yes, you're absolutely right" (assuming, of course, that Made-a-Mistake isn't your middle name). Just as anger often feeds anger, reasonableness begets reasonableness, and paves the way to working together to seek a resolution.
   
   
6. Personalize your attention. It's hard to ooze enthusiasm when you've just heard your 127th complaint of the week. But that's not the fault of the 127th complainer. Treat every customer as your most important customer and never minimize the seriousness of the problem. Use you phrases, such as "Let me check on that for you," or "I'll see what I can find out for you." Subtle differences in wording can dramatically influence how customers perceive your efforts to assist them.
   
   
7. Do something. The person with the complaint needs to feel that you share his or her concern and that an effort is being made to solve the problem. Fortunately, many complaints don't call for a grand solution. If you're really swamped (and when aren't you?), start by suggesting a simple solution. Offering to do a little <96> and then doing it <96> will earn you far more credibility in the long run than promising to do something major and falling short.
   
   
8. Teach them how to say %@(&!^/). If you're lucky, they'll be so impressed, they'll forget what they were complaining about.