Dealing with Dissatisfied Customers

How to turn customer problems into opportunities

By LaRita Heet, Freelance Writer, Journalist, IBT Designer, LMH Communications

We've all been there. You get home with your new car to find an oil leak. You call the customer service department, only to be put on hold or transferred from option to option. When you finally reached a person, he's unfriendly at best. When an unhappy customer cannot find resolution with the company, it is a lose-lose situation. But all is not lost – a dissatisfied customer's trust can be regained with these three easy steps:

Become an active listener.
Follow the IDEA process and turn the problem into an opportunity.
Employ only policies, programs and people that make exemplary customer service a priority.

Can you hear me now?

Active listening means listening without interruptions, asking clarifying questions, reiterating your understanding of what was said and discovering what you can do to make it right.
Try: Want to hone your listening skills? Go to About: Active Listening for some great tips. The Washington Small Business Development Center offers a clear look at the steps necessary to right the wrongs a customer has experienced. Listening is first on the list.

Use a great I.D.E.A.

The American Management Association (AMA)'s best-selling book, Keeping Customers for Life, promoted this big IDEA: Identify (the problem), Diagnose (the cause), Explore (possible solutions) and Act (on the best solution).
Try: Who better to advise about dissatisfied customers than the Better Business Bureau? Check out these BBB tipsheets: Effective Complaint Handling, Dealing with Unruly Customers, and Is Your Company Keeping Existing Customers.

Empower your employees

Give your front-line staff the power to solve problems early on. The earlier you can solve a problem, the less expensive for your company, and the happier the customer.
Try: Check out Biz Help 24, to read what happens when an employee is, and is not, given the authority to handle a customer's complaints.

Cut back on future complaints

What is your business's focus? If it's not customer service, it may be time for a change. If you don't make your customers a priority, why should they make you one?
Try: Check out Customer Solutions to download and print a Complaint Management System Checklist. Customer Solutions also offers the i-Sight Service and Complaint Management Software, designed specifically for dealing with dissatisfied customers.

Info to go

One essential part of serving your customer is having all the information in one-to-access place.
Try: Do you have remote employees? No problem. Office Small Business Management Edition 2006 allows your employees immediate access to customer data from a Pocket PC.