How do you perceive your customer satisfaction? Are your customers happy with doing business with you and the services you provide? Here is an interesting statistic. Eighty percent of companies say they deliver outstanding customer service, but only 8 percent of their customers agree.
The universal adoption of smartphones and social media, has fundamentally altered the way customers complain today. Customers can now express their displeasure faster and more publicly than ever. When these complaints are played out on a public stage, businesses must not only try to satisfy the customer but the customer’s audience on social media as well. Today, these complaints can live on and live in public view for a very long time. Your customer’s experiences have become a spectator sport.
Unfortunately, most businesses have a solution to these social media complaints…they simply ignore them. You might think your business is successful and in fact has always been successful and you probably used this ignoring approach to customer complaints the whole time. Why change you might ask? I will tell you why. Most people who complain are frustrated and dissatisfied with how their customer problems and poor experiences are being handled.
Complainers are not your problem…Ignoring them is!
Today, ignoring your customer complaints is a wrong approach because in an era when much of the customer experience has become a spectator sport, choosing to stay silent actually speaks volumes. Not responding is a response and a response that says “I don’t care about you.” Think about it. Nothing ever gets better when you don’t address it and yet I still see businesses who continue to not respond to customers who have complaints. Think about how you feel when you are ignored from a business after you made a complaint?
Answering a poor review on a social media site, actually increases customer advocacy and shows onlookers that you do in fact care about your customers. Customers feel better whenever or however you respond. People don’t complain just to complain, they usually have a legitimate concern and you need to recognize that as an opportunity, not a problem. Complaints are actually gifts and opportunities to improve the customer experience and an opportunity to figure out the root cause of what is causing complaints with your product or service.
Interacting with your customers, especially those who are upset is 100% worth the effort. Answer every complaint, every time! It may not be possible to answer every complaint immediately, but making an effort to embrace their complaints will help you keep your customers. Think about it. If you don’t take care of your customers your competition will.