How to Address the Needs of Dissatisfied Customers?

• Service & Complaints Guides
• A Practical Guide to Handling Consumer Complaints
• Best Practices in Handling Customer Complaints
• A Guide for Consumer Complaints Management
• 6 Steps to Achieve Customer Service Excellence

If most unhappy customers do not complain, how do I find out why they are dissatisfied?

The average business does not hear from 96 percent of its unhappy customers.

There are many ways businesses can encourage members of this "silent majority" to identify themselves so the company can win them back:

• Solicit complaints - make it easy for unhappy customers to tell you what their problems are. Solve them as quickly as possible and with a smile.
• Keep records of why complaints occur.
• Analyze how complaints can be prevented and make changes in your products and marketing procedures when appropriate.
• Provide incentives to encourage your salespeople to carry out the policies described above.

The simplest approach is to make it easy for customers to complain. Many businesses have established "800" numbers; even if the customer has nothing to say, the company has sent the signal that it cares.

• British Airways installed "Video Point" booths at Heathrow Airport in London so that travellers can tape their comments upon arrival.
• Maine Savings Bank in Portland offers its patrons one dollar for every letter they write suggesting ways to improve service. The bank averages more than 500 letters a year from customers, who might otherwise have kept their ideas to themselves. It extended its branch hours after many customers suggested it.
• The Toronto Dominion Bank offered customers a five-dollar bill if they waited more than five minutes in line or if its automated teller machines were down.

An even more aggressive approach to unearthing problems is to look for trouble in the making - to listen carefully for offhand comments customers make and to tune into and anticipate their needs.

More formal "listening devices," such as questionnaires and customer suggestion boxes, are effective only if someone monitors them continually and promptly acts on complaints and suggestions.

Identifying a problem (read "opportunity") quickly - even before it registers with the customer - is fruitful only if the company responds quickly.

Table of Contents

1. Secure Customer Loyalty?
2. Maximize the benefits of Customer Feedback and Word of Mouth?
3. Address the needs of Dissatisfied Customers?
4. Profit from Customer Service Recovery?
5. Fulfill an Unconditional Service Guarantee?
6. Establish a Refund and Exchange Policy?
7. Adopt a Quality Management Program?
8. Entire Guide

Email this page Print this page

• Related Content