Handling Customer Complaints training

Effective customer complaint handling is one of the most important aspects of providing excellent customer service. Customers who complain are offering the organization a chance to identify and resolve problems, demonstrate excellent service, and keep loyal customers. The objective of this workshop is to help participants handle customer complaints and difficult customers successfully.

At the end of this training course trainees will be able to view customer complaints as opportunities, identify problems that prompt complaints, handle complaints effectively, and satisfy customers who complain.

Why "Handling Customer Complaints Training" Matters

• Customer complaints alert organizations to ways to improve products, services, procedures, and attitudes toward customers.
• Resolving customer complaints successfully often creates loyal customers.
• Almost all customer complaints are fixable. It's estimated that 95% of customers that have their complaints resolved will remain customers and keep doing business with the organization.
• Only about 4 percent of customers complain. Most—96%—just silently take their business elsewhere.
• Dissatisfied customers tell as many as 20 other people about their experience

Course Objectives

• Gather information, even in a tense situation, in order to deal with the real problem.
• Defuse customer anger and build rapport.
• Communicate with confidence and assurance.
• Maintain professionalism under pressure.
• Create customer satisfaction.
• Provide a solution.
• Monitor and analyse complaint levels and identify remedial action.

Target Audience

Executives / Teams who are in contact with customers either face-to-face or over the telephone and need the essential skills to handle customer complaints with confidence and assurance.

The Complaint - How to Control It

The damage complaints can do to your organisation
Making sure the complaint does not escalate
Accepting customer feedback graciously
Re-building the customer relationship
The various techniques required to handle written, telephone and face-to-face complaints

Communication that Works

Developing the right attitude - feeling good, thinking positively
How to sound confident, caring and helpful - building rapport
Active listening
Gathering the information
Checking understanding
Successful telephone techniques - the do's and don'ts

Remaining Calm - Not Over-reacting

Recognising how serious is the customer's concern
Defusing a difficult situation
Empathise with the complaint - don't join in the criticism
Gaining the customer's respect
Identifying common ground

Creating Satisfaction from Dissatisfaction

Ensuring the customer feels listened to
Let the customer know what can/will be done about their complaint
Taking responsibility for the successful outcome
Getting across your point of view - re-building commitment
Monitoring complaint levels versus performance standards
Identifying processes to deal with the most common objections
Influencing the organisation - collectively looking to avoid future problems
Personal Development- Creating an action plan