Why are Customer Complaints Great for Your Growing Business?

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. The more the customers, the higher the growth. The higher the level of customer satisfaction, the greater the customer retention. Customer satisfaction is the key to the success of any business.

What happens when your customers are not satisfied? They complain and that’s the hard truth! From poor customer service to a product that fails to meet expectations, understand that unhappy customers will not keep their experience to themselves, they will share it with others and many will not share with you. In this internet-driven world, a bad review of your business can travel like wildfire. This means if a customer isn’t satisfied and it turns to the hand of your competitors, you lose business.

However, what if I tell you that you need customer complaints about your business to grow. That’s right! Customer complaints can drive business to success, that is when handled right. They are an excellent opportunity to increase customer level of satisfaction, boost sales, and even turn unhappy customers to happy advocates. Read on to know how customer complaints can be turned to your advantage.

Why does your business need customer complaints to grow?

Customers are expressing their dissatisfaction with a product, poor after-sales service, employees, or internal process when complaining. These can be a pointer to the areas that need improvements to prevent such cases from rearing up in the future. This means consumer complaints should be seen as genuine customer feedback that needs to be addressed quickly. Here is the importance of consumer complaints:

It can draw your attention to areas that need improvement that you aren’t aware of:

It’s most times very easy to get caught up in nailing their business goals and advancements ant all costs. However, it becomes imperative for businesses to hold customer complaints in high esteem as it points out the key areas of the business that needs to be improved. The reason is simple, 51 percent of customers will never do business with you again after one negative experience, according to Newvoicemedia. Hence, complaints may be the most valuable asset business do ignore, and here is how.

They are a great source of insights into how products or services can be improved or upgraded.

They point business weaknesses and they can be worked on

They provide insights into how consumer perceive your brand

They pinpoint staff members who need more training, advice and close supervision

Handling the problem is a way to train and teach staff

Complaints open doors to Improve customer communication

When customers make a complaint, it is an opportunity to have effective communication with the tea while making the customers the topmost priority. Customers who are treated right will feel heard and valued and will most likely stay loyal to your brand. Here are ways to handle customer complaints:

Be calm: while the natural human instinct is to give back word for word and attack the complainers, it is important to take control of your emotion and keep your cool. When this happens, you will be able to handle the situation with more diligence

Listen: unhappy customers have complained for a reason and it is important to lend them your listening ears. Let them vent, while you listen. This will give you understand your customers and their problems with your brand.

Acknowledge the problem: if your company is at fault, admit, and apologize. This alone can calm down an angry customer and make them feel valued

Offer a solution: when a customer makes a complaint, investigate the issue, and see what can be done. Let your customer complaints handle the issue without having to pass it to the higher authorities to avoid delay. while offering a solution, don’t make a promise you cannot commit to. Be honest in our approach.

Followup: ask for customers’ feedback after the issue has been handled to see if they are satisfied or not. This will tell them that they mean a lot to your business.

Consumers complaint can be used to enhance customer satisfaction and turn complainers to advocates:

According to the customer service survey made by ABa Quality Monitoring Ltd, 70% of consumers will be willing to patronize you again as long as they are satisfied with the resolution of the complaint. Amazingly, this stat jumps to 95% if the complaints are being handled on time. This means when consumer feedback is handled right and on time, it will make them happy and will like to come back. However, most complaints will not be made to you and that is why businesses need to be proactive when it comes to complaints handling. Here is how:

Get involved in social listening and be aware of the sentiments surrounding your brand. This provides insights for business to tweak their strategies is based on consumer needs and expectations
Proactively monitor all your social platforms and respond to any comments, reviews, or anything being said about your brand.
Be quick to respond to any negative reviews before it spreads and handles it appropriately