Handling complaints

Any business that is run efficiently focuses a lot on the customer complaint. That is why many businesses believe that the customer is always right. But this is not always true. Unfortunately, many times the customers are wrong as well. That is why before taking any action a company should look into any sort of complain and acknowledge it.

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Customer Complaint

There are two ways in which customer complaints can be handled: by accepting it and by rejecting it. In order to generate liability, many times a company offer some form of relief to the customers.

Even though the company does not have any legal liability towards the complaint being done they try to earn this opportunity and make some goodwill for them.

After all, what is a better advertisement than a satisfied customer? Thus, many times complaints are accepted even though there is no fault of the company.

Further, the companies many times goes a step beyond and give customers more than the relief. This is done on the basis of a hope that this customer will spread out the word out of the mouth to any potential customer in the future.

When the complaint is accepted than it is further divided into two subgroups, one when the company is actually guilty and other when the company is not guilty.

In either of these cases, a company conducts an inquiry so to have a proper knowledge about the situation. This helps the company make a proper decision. Even without the inquiry, a company can accept the complaint.

Many companies do this even when they are not guilty. These companies run only on one motto that the customers are always right!

Conducting Inquiry

If the company is conducting an inquiry when they are guilty then they should politely explain about it to their customers. Just try to reply the customers promptly and ask for the appropriate time.

This will ensure that the company can do a thorough inquiry and find out the actual problem. Further, in the case of guilty companies need to decide on the compensation that the customer shall receive.

If the complaint did is genuine and the company is willing to accept it than the proposed offer must be clearly stated. Proper care needs to take when the responsibility is accepted.

Passing on the blame to the juniors is pointless as this act will only hamper the work culture in the organization. Therefore, before creating more problems trying to solve one problem first.

Many times companies tend to accept their fault even though they are guilty. In this type of problem, the company does not have any liability towards the customer. But they are still willing to offer some relief measures as they consider it as a part of good customer service.

In such cases, also the company needs to act politely. The reply should seem like the company is doing this unwillingly. It should be justified properly and the reply should look genuine.

Rejecting the Complaint

Direct approach

It is not the case that everytime the complaints are genuine. Many times it appears that the company is not at fault. This only comes to know when a thorough inquiry has been done. Thus, for this type of cases, facts need to be taken into consideration before arriving on any judgment.

It can be possible that the person making the complaint is looking for some undue gain by complaining to the organization. In such cases, the firm should remain polite and stand firm on their claims. It should state the compulsions regarding the measures and try and present the facts to the customer.

The letter that is written for such matter should be drafted properly. It is very difficult to draft a letter where you are rejecting a claim of the customer. Thus, proper care needs to be taken in such cases. There are many websites and consultants who can offer the required help in such type of cases.

They are trained and have been in similar situations before. Thus a professional can be taken in such cases. In such cases, if possible, attach the original photocopy of the inquiry report. This will help the customer understand the problem better and a transparency will be maintained. The tone used should be of friendliness.

Indirect approach

For rejections, one option is to ready to send letters. But many times they can suffer from deficiencies. In addition to this, there is no stamp of authority on these type of letters.

For such cases, handle the complaints with patience and furnish the relevant facts to the customer. In the end, you inform the customer that unable to oblige for the complaints made.

The indirect approach may be received better than the direct approach by the customer.

Questions for You

Q. In the indirect approach the customer is received favorably.

A.True

B. False

Answer: A.True

Q. The customer is always right.

A.True

B.False

Answer. B. False