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Module 9
Customer service and managing complaints
You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied. Jerry Fritz
All businesses, small or large, have bad days and have to deal with customer dissatisfaction and complaints. It could include receiving the wrong product or service, not keeping promises by your business, hidden costs, unprofessional staff and sometimes simply just a difficult customer.
For any reason our customer is not happy, we must have strategies in place to deal with it. Don't leave your unhappy customers hanging with no response. Customers are not making a fuss usually, but when they make, it means there is something bothering them. Even bad reviews and comments online must be answered professionally and address the specific issue. If it is your fault, then you have to make amendments to fix it, and if it is not, by answering calmly and professionally make your points that you haven't done anything wrong.
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They DO expect you to fix things when they go wrong.
-Donald Porter
You must have clear policies for refund and exchange, warranty and customer privacy. These items must be provided by law in Australia.
Check ACCC for more information. The ACCC is Australia's competition regulator and national consumer law champion.
The following book and video show the principals of customer complaint management.
This book explains the steps you should take in order to manage complaints successfully.
How to manage unhappy customers professionally
