How to reduce customer complaints

Two months ago, I ordered online 2 pair of running shoes and when I noticed that there was a delay in delivering them, I started contacting the customer service by phone and email. Guess what? No reply! None of the channels I used allowed me to interact with someone. One month later, I received my order, and 2 weeks after that I received an email apologizing and offering me a discount coupon valid for a month. Well, the discount coupon expires today, and I have no intention to use it. Although, it was a nice gesture, I was ignored and when they finally sent me an email it was to purchase again! This attitude toward the customers has to stop!

Have you noticed an increase in customer complaints? Are you interacting with your customers? Are you ignoring their comments, reviews, their emails? Are you anxious and don't know how to handle them? If you are reading this, it means that you care about your customers. To help you, I will discuss the main reasons and show you how to improve your customer satisfaction.

Are you overwhelmed with customer complaints?

Let's start with this figure: 228% increase in online shopping complaints in Dubai. In 2 months, the complaints increased by 228%! The main reasons for online complaints are the delay in delivering the goods, receiving the wrong product, unclear information on how to return the items, unable to talk to a customer service employee... Believe it or not, customer complaints are blessings in disguise. You shouldn't be afraid or feel anxious about receiving a complaint, it actually can help you identify and correct an issue. It is a free feedback, you should be thankful. Let's take a look at the main reasons and see how you can improve:

1- Disappointment

As mentioned above, receiving the wrong order, delayed delivery, bad quality products are part of the long list of the reasons for the customer to be disappointed. To avoid this, you should focus on providing the correct information about your product/ service. This can be done by describing in details the product or service with high quality pictures from different angles. Checking the quality of your product is also very important in order to ensure high quality standards ( no dysfunction, error, broken parts...).

2- Bad Customer Service

Put yourself in the shoes of your customer who just received the wrong product, and has been waiting on the phone for 30 minutes to talk to a customer service employee. You need to look at your customer experience processes; analyse them and improve them. You need to reduce the call wait time, increase the response time to comments and emails,your employees need to know everything about your product / service and all the processes related to the refund, the shipping, the cancellation...

3- Lack of Communication

Most of the time the customer is kept in the dark. The company doesn't communicate on the burning issue: delay in shipping, order error, answering a query... You need to continuously communicate with the customers even if you are trying to do your best to fix the issue rapidly. The customer doesn't know what is happening behind the scenes, and the lack of communication increases the frustration. The internal lack of communication can also affect the customer. A scenario could be that the customer service representative doesn't know a product specification because of the lack of training or information availability. Or the employees are not informed about the process related to the new refund policy, and misguide the customer. It is crucial that you ensure proper training, communication, information session and provide access to all documented processes related to the customer experience.

You should focus on managing all communication channels. You should ensure that all available information can be accessed easily by the customer. You should be transparent and clear about the situation and how you are solving the problem. Don't ignore your customer! Your reputation will be damaged and it will be hard and expensive to rebuild it. Take your customers seriously! Follow up to make sure that the problem is resolved. Analyze the feedback and complaints received to fix your own internal problem, processes...You need to make sure that you take the time to assess your current processes and improve them based on your customer feedback. If you have the financial means to investment in technology, please do! Live chat-bot are very useful to interact with your customers instantly. Go the extra mile for your customer. Make a refund to genuinely apologize for the mistake or send the right order within 2 days. My last advice would be to not over promise and under deliver. We can help you have an external perspective on your internal situation, contact us now!