Archive for the ‘Dealing with complaints’ Category

Here are some tips to help with complaints handling

Handling complaints can be difficult and sometimes it can be easy.  But when handling complaints don’t despair but try and keep you motivation up by focussing on putting things right for the customer.  This might sound easy but navigating your way through a complaint can often be tricky.  We thought we’d help by sharing some of our tips for complaints handling.

So if you get a complaint do keep in mind these tips and it may well help you:

1. Listen. Let the complainant explain what is wrong. Often when they first approach you or make that call they are filled with emotion and stress.  it can sometimes take some courange to make a complaint so you may have to let them vent their emotions to get it off their chest before you start trying to resolve it. The best complaints handlers listen carefully before trying to resolve the complaint because to put it right you need to understand what went wrong and why. So let the customer have their say, that may be for some people a big part of why they are complaining.  They simply want to vent their frustration.
2. Always acknowledge that you have a complaint. Be clear about what they are complaining about and if you can empathise, summarise what they have told you.  Make sure you let the customer know you understand their viewpoint and that you are going to do your best to resolve the complaint.
3. Say sorry! It is amazing how many people complain simply because they want an apology.  I really can work wonders. I’ve heard it said that apologising is sometimes avoided in case liability is admitted but saying sorry is not an acknowledgement of liability. It is simply an apology. Often saying sorry and meaning it is all that the customer wants to hear. It may even resolve the complaint there and then.
4. If the complaint is not resolved at this point. Tactfully ask what would put this right. If you don’t know what the customer wants you can’t put it right for them.  Most customers are reasonable and won’t over egg their demands.  Do this carefully and once they have explained the problem.  To handle complaints well you want the dialogue to turn onto what can be done rather than what was done.
5. If you cannot resolve the complaint straight away, then explain what you are going to do. There is nothing worse than the customer not knowing when they are to hear back, so make sure you give them your contact details and promise when you will be able to respond.  Explain why it may take some time to sort out.
6. Do what you say you will do. That means getting back in touch when you say you will as well as making sure the solution you have agreed is actually delivered.

So there you have it six of my best tips to help you handle complaints better.

Good luck with those customers.

Alison

There have been a range of studies into the links between customer satisfaction and business performance.   These have shown that a key element of customer satisfaction is the experience the customer receives when dealing with an organisation.  These studies have shown a strong correlation between perceived customer satisfaction and service quality with sales.  Service quality has been found to have a lasting effect into future year’s sales.

One important area affecting customer satisfaction was complaints handling.  The essentials of providing a fast response, timely information on the complaints handling process and achieving a satisfactory outcome for the complaint improved perceived satisfaction levels.  So quickly working to resolve a complaint increases customer satisfaction.  We’ve also experience of increased customer loyalty resulting from well-handled customer complaints.

The experience of these studies shows that investing in customer service can make a real difference to organisational performance and results. This perhaps explains why there is no shortage of customer service training available.  If you want to know more about these studies just pop an email though to me at: Alison@trainingtoachieveuk.com

However, the training is only part of the answer.  One of the main problems is that customer feedback is a lagging indicator. It can take time to see the customer service improvements resulting in increased customer feedback scores.

One of the interesting challenges in this area is that employees intuitively know when they have given or received bad service.  This means that they may be offering what they think is great customer service, rather than what has been defined as great customer service. This makes defining what good service actually is an important task of senior management. The company ethos, culture and reward systems send out to employees signals about what is valued and there is a need to seek to achieve employee buy-in to the same culture to achieve results.

To do this the customer contact points need to have a common level of training to support their customer service delivery. The wider organisation also needs to understand the impact that the whole business is aiming to deliver for customers so that the customer service teams are properly supported.

So a customer service course is not a quick fix, to have a lasting benefit it needs to be part of a customer service strategy reinforced by organisational goals and reward systems.  This requires investment of time by senior management to create the right cultural framework.

Once these strategic issues are tackled then finding the right training solution is straightforward. There are a range of training courses that are cost effective.  Customer service and complaints handling courses can reinforce the culture the organisation is promoting and achieve real benefits in improving the customer service experience.

At Training To Achieve we’ve found that a strategic approach to customer service and complaints handling courses can pay dividends for organisations. We have also found that as well as training customer contact staff by also training managers and internal trainers we can provide a lasting legacy and boost the performance of businesses over time.

Alison Miles-Jenkins

Founder and CEO
Training To Achieve

Poor complaints handling is proving expensive

The news this week from the Banking sector shows that the costs of poor complaints handling should not be underestimated.  A whopping £4.5 billion is at stake in this sector for the apparent miss-selling of insurance to cover loans made. This results from a court case.  There may be an appeal so we shall need to watch the unfolding story to see what happens next.

The Banks have been trying to defend their position but it seems that over 200,000 people complained to the ombudsman.  Clearly there is a lesson here for all that deal with complaints: fairness and customer service standards must not be forgotten in the pursuit of profit.

Save money

The issue with complaints handling is that when complaints are justified, simply trying to fend them off rarely pays.  The issues often will continue to resurface as individuals search for different ways to make their case and these days’ social media campaigns are often used to put pressure on organisations.  This pushes up the costs of complaints handling and ties up staff time.

There has never been a better time to review how well your staff deal with complaints.  Often poor or inadequately trained staff are part of the issue.  Help your staff, help your organisational complaints handling.  We can help. At Training To Achieve we are one of the UK leaders in the provision of complaints handling training. Just give us a call on 0845 165 6269 to chat through your needs on a confidential basis.

News just out from the Central Bank of Ireland today identified that insurance firms in Ireland have more work to do on their complaints handling.

Complaints handling inspection results

The results of an inspection of complaints handling processes by the Central Bank showed that none of the insurance firms inspected were fully compliant with the Consumer Protection Code.  This Code sets out how firms must handle consumer complaints. Over 600 individual complaints across twelve insurance firms were inspected. In some cases the results are so poor that apparently the Central Bank is considering enforcement action.

What was lacking with the complaints handling?

Some of the basic requirements of good complaints handling were lacking.  There were examples in all firms that consumers were not provided with details of an individual point of contact until the complaint was resolved or could not be processed any further.

Even when a contact point was provided consumers had to restate the details of their complaints time and again to different staff in the insurance firms.  Naturally this increased consumer dissatisfaction and no doubt increased the costs of complaints handling by the insurance firms themselves.

Some firms didn’t inform the customer of their right to take the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman (FSO), or didn’t give them the contact details of the FSO.

When it came to acknowledging complaints there were occasions in all firms where the requirement to acknowledge complaints in writing was not adhered to.

Speed was also an issue because when acknowledgements were issued there were occasions when this was not done within the required five working days.

Could better training be part of the answer here?

It rather looks as if the common sense contained within the Consumer Protection Code is far from common practice.

The Code itself contains an appropriate process for complaints handling which if followed will help handle complaints effectively.  It may be that poor training on complaints handling is one of the root causes behind these disappointing results.