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Customer Service Training:
Turning Negative Customer Feedback Into Positive Customer Service Skills
Business owners often perceive negative customer feedback as nothing more than an unfortunate consequence of doing business. They also often ask themselves, "How can I improve customer service skills in my company?" The answer is staring them in the face: address negative customer feedback. With the right attention, resolution, and perspective, negative customer feedback doesn't have to be a burden, but a customer service skills blessing in disguise.
Negative as Negative
There are a number of mediums through which companies receive negative customer feedback. Likely, if customers have something negative to say, they will let others know by: 1) sending a scathing email, 2) complaining to others via word of mouth, or 3) ranting over the internet via a blog, forum, or social media outlet.
The adverse effects of negative customer feedback are numerous, so it is imperative not to dismiss these encounters as inevitable. Whether you believe so or not, negative comments are costly to your organization.
Since maintaining existing customers is much less costly to an organization than attracting new ones, it pays to use customer service skills to keep existing customers happy instead of incurring the additional cost and burden of acquiring more. When a legitimate complaint is left unresolved, your reputation is damaged and you can lose more than just one customer. Studies show that the average unhappy customer will tell roughly three other people to avoid a company or its services. This, in turn, leads to a loss of potential customers and increasingly missed opportunities to use customer service skills to merit positive recommendations.
Negative as Positive
Thankfully, all these potential disasters can be averted using customer service skills. Negative customer feedback can be effectively used in two major ways. First, whether positive or negative, any customer feedback reflects aspects of your business. To this effect, negative feedback is helpful to improve customer service skills. You cannot solve a problem until you identify it. In its various forms, negative customer feedback can be utilized to motivate employees to improve customer service skills, modify behaviors, uncover organizational flaws, and adjust practices and policies.
Second, negative customer feedback can also be an effective tool for strengthening and broadening customer engagement, provided the issue at hand is resolved appropriately using good customer service skills. Here are a few steps for successfully re-engaging your customers.
-- Never let negative comments stand unresolved; respond directly to whoever submitted the complaint.
-- Since information spreads quickly through word of mouth and the world wide web, it is important to respond swiftly, yet in a controlled and calculated way.
-- When you respond, offer additional resources and information. If you find a similar issue among a growing number of customers, publish a response to these complaints on your website or in your company newsletter so that customers know you are taking action to resolve the issue.
-- Though it may seem counter-intuitive, thank the customer for their feedback. Remember, other people will hear about or be reading your response, so it is an excellent opportunity to display your humility and willingness to learn from your customers.
-- In addition to your direct communication with the customer, if the issue is resolved particularly well, use whatever media forms you have available - Twitter, Facebook, your company web site, blog, newsletter, employee intranet -- and let everyone know about your customer service skills success.
Understand that you can't please everyone; however, if you're receiving complaints on a regular basis, it may be time to start evaluating your customer service skills and organizational practices. Effective customer relationship management is an essential key for your business to succeed. Customers need to know they are being heard and that companies are continually improving customer service skills to better meet their needs.
Source: Monica Nolan http://www.peoplemetrics.com/
Related: Customer Service Skills
Customer Service Training:
Turning Negative Customer Feedback Into Positive Customer Service Skills
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