fleur revell - the definitive guide to managing customer complaints
TRANSCRIPT
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CONSUMER COMPLAINTSBEST PRACTICE IN A DIGITAL AGE
A presentation by Impact PR
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WHAT WE WILL COVER TODAY
Today we will cover;
2. Market research
1. Introduction
3. What can go wrong – when complaints escalate
4. Guidelines for dealing with complaints
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INTRODUCTION
In some industries, when you do your job well you are ‘invisible’ to the customer.
Take travel insurance for example. We pay the premium and if we never have to claim, we never find out
how our claim would have been treated.
It is important to see breakdowns in customer service as an opportunity to create positive word of mouth.
Sometimes customers define your service quality not when things go
right but how you deal with things when they go wrong.
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INTRODUCTION
In a digital age consistency becomes more relevant to you. No longer do you act in silos, but your
customers will read about your service online and this forms part of their expectations.
Customers have more escalation options open to them, and they can act punitively – even on minor
issues.
Training all staff in best practices and company procedures can help maintain a consistent, high standard
across your business.
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CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
In today’s digital world, the expectations of your customers are changing:
• We want it faster than before
• We expect accuracy. If we fill in a form online, we don’t expect typos when we get in
store.
• We expect you to be monitoring all our communications, whether that is Facebook,
Twitter, email or phone, and bending over backwards to get back to us quickly
• We don’t like overly scripted service, we want authenticity
• We feel empowered by social media
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Market Research
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CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
We asked New Zealanders: In general are you happy with the way NZ companies respond to your
customer service complaints ?
29% of New Zealanders said NO!
Looking more closely at this, the question asked “in general” - that's not “have you ever had a situation
where a complaint wasn't dealt with to your satisfaction” this means most of the time.
So out of every three people who walk into your store one of them already believes that if they have an
issue with your service, you wont fix it.
If your customer is a male, lives in Auckland, Wellington or Canterbury this number could be as high as
36%!
That's a big indictment on New Zealand customer service.
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CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
How do New Zealanders like to complain?
47%
41%
6%
4%
Email/letter
Phone
Social media
In person
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CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
For those aged under 25, one in six prefer social media as their first point of complaint.
Why is social media the fastest growing means of complaint?
1. It gets action - fast
2. It is punitive and designed to embarrass
3. It provides a record of the discussion
4. Others may support me and I will feel vindicated
5. Convenience - contact details are easy to find
6. We can be more aggressive online
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CONSUMER COMPLAINTS
The likelihood of wanting to deal with someone in person or on the phone declines with age.
Why is this a big problem in the digital age?
7% of any message is conveyed through words
38% through certain vocal elements
55% through nonverbal elements (facial expressions, gestures, posture, etc)
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CONSUMER COMPLAINTS
Digital communication does not convey body language, facial expressions or tone of voice!
All of these are key in dealing with customer complaints.
With only 7% of the message being conveyed though words, it is
very easy to underestimate the gravity of a customer’s feedback.
Bottom line is:Bottom line is: The further away we are, the harder it is to understand
and deal with complaints
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CONSUMER COMPLAINTS
What do customers want when they complain?
Most preferred outcome to complaint Percent
Replacement product or service 37%
A full refund 18%
An apology and/or to be listened to sincerely 17%
An explanation of what went wrong 12%
Additional compensation of some kind beyond a refund 11%
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GETTING IT RIGHT
International research indicates:
Up to 95% of customers will give you a second chance if you handle their
complaint successfully and in a timely manner
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What Can Go Wrong
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WHAT CAN GO WRONG
What are the consequences of not dealing with complaints effectively?
Escalation
Brand damage
Customer loss
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Social Media Crisis Examples
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CADBURY
Jake Keating, from Liverpool used Twitter to contact Cadbury
via their official account
"I have just found a WASP in my chocolate!!!
What are you gonna do about this!?!"
Cadbury first replied to Jakes tweet;
“We'd love to reply with a pun, but we want you to know how seriously we're taking this, so we
won't,” (they meant ‘White Anglo Saxon Protestant’ presumably)
then to the general public (as the image was shared across the internet);
"Hi guys, we're investigating this and are in contact with the original poster. Thanks for flagging."
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UNITED AIRLINES
Highlighting the importance of avoiding generic, market
speak to reply to customer complaints, this letter was
sent as a customer reply by United Airlines only last
month.
The unhappy customer posted this to
Reddit prompting a social media storm.
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BRITISH AIRWAYS
In one of the most talked about social media issues of the year, annoyed tweeter Hassan Syed paid to promote
his tweet slamming British Airways after they failed to address his father’s lost suitcase.
The promoted tweet was seen by over
76,000 users
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AMERICAN AIRLINES
Proving, once again, that generic replies don’t work, American Airlines automatic twitter reply was highlighted
by one disgruntled customer.
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LONDON LUTON AIRPORT
Although a light-hearted attempt to assure
passengers that they would remain safe even when
it snows, the chosen image was of a real plane
crash in which a 6 year old was killed.
London Luton Airport made a serious misjudgement
with this post…
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Complaint Management
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GUIDELINES
Our top tips for better managing customer complaints
• Preparation – take the time to lay out a game plan for how to deal with customer issues.
• Respond quickly – if you have a social media page maintain at least a daily check on social
conversations. A fast response helps show you care.
• Do treat each complaint with an individual customised response
• Never use marketing speak to respond to a complaint.
• Do implement a consistent approach across the business
• Never try and sell them something else, they want to be listened to not sold to
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GUIDELINES
• Do follow up – after working out a resolution with the customer, follow up afterwards to ensure it met
their expectations
• If it is on your Facebook page, take the customer offline as soon as possible and resolve the
complaint away from social media - you would not leave a customer with a complaint announcing this
in the middle of the store
• Do try to phone the customer rather than email. It shows them you care
• Do have adequate resourcing – if you don’t have the skills or time in-house to maintain your
Facebook page and manage complaints effectively, consider outsourcing the page management
someone with experience in this area
• Do remember what it is like to be a customer
• Understand that some customer issues cannot be fixed
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TO SUMMARISE
Today we covered:
1. Customers expect a faster, more accurate service.
2. Market research – a third of customers expect you to fail in fixing their complaint,
most try to reach you via phone/email but social media is growing rapidly. Most of us
just want what we paid for or an empathetic ear.
3. Why the further away from face to face interaction we are, the harder a complaint is
to understand and resolve.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Get together and agree some consistent standards
2. Treat each complaint as an opportunity
3. Understand that social media complaints can help support continuous and
dynamic improvement.
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Thank You