04/ 30/ 2007
by Jeffrey Moses
It's vital for a business to encourage customers to complain when they're dissatisfied. Complaints should be thought of as opportunities for improvement. While every small-business owner would like to have a perfect company that satisfies every customer who walks through the door, in the real world, this isn't possible.
Customers talk about a business with friends, family members and business associates. Usually, satisfied customers talk with only a few people, but dissatisfied customers may talk with 20 or more. For this reason, it's vital that a company make it easy for customers to complain--and to address complaints immediately.
Certain aspects of a business are indispensable for growth: customer care, quality of products and services, value of products or services (i.e., price in terms of quality), follow-up servicing and warranty work and handling of complaints. Weaknesses in any of these areas can cripple a business' growth. Usually, customer complaints are in one of these key areas.
When a customer does complain, a business shouldn't take offense and pretend that a problem doesn't exist. This only pushes customers away and does not provide the opportunity to fix the problem and turn around the customer's dissatisfaction.
The entire organization of a company should be set up so frontline employees who work directly with customers have the chance to find out about any possible dissatisfaction. It's surprising how openly customers answer questions such as: "Did you find everything you need?" "Can you make suggestions for products you'd like us to stock?" "How was our service today?" or "Would you be kind enough to fill out this brief questionnaire evaluating our service?" When sales personnel ask each customer at least one of these questions, it yields enormous feedback on how customers are viewing your operation.
Some employees--and managers, also--feel uncomfortable speaking with customers about problems. They may feel that the conversation will turn negative or even hostile. Usually, the opposite is the case, especially when employees apologize without becoming defensive. Customers appreciate having the chance to speak their minds. When their problems are resolved quickly and efficiently, it shows that the company cares about them as individuals. Such personal attention is always the basis for creating loyal, repeat customers.
