If you intend to improve the quality of your service, the absence of complaints is a serious problem. For every complaint from a customer, there are 26 others with problems, but why don't they complain? How to deserve those latent complaints?
We know that most dissatisfied customers do not voice their complaint. This may be good news for some organizations that receive customer complaints as a nuisance…
But if your organization has set out to improve the quality of its service, with a goal of excellence, the absence of complaints is a serious problem.
Customer complaints are a fabulous tool to manage the quality of service, because, without requiring any proactive investigation by the company (which are usually expensive), they mark the main points for improvement.
If you only had the historical information of your clients' complaints, you already have an excellent basis to establish your priorities for improvement. The serious problem is that most dissatisfied customers don't complain.
Complaints are the tip of an iceberg
The Technical Assistance Research Programs (TARP), a US entity with international prestige for the precision of its investigations, has found that for every complaint received from a client, there is an average of 26 people with problems, six of whom which are usually serious. Hence the complaints expressed are the tip of a great iceberg, right?
What are those serious problems that so many of your clients are suffering, and that they do not express them? It would be so useful to know them… not only to avoid losing them as customers, but also to take the measures that prevent those same problems in so many others. But here is the key: complaints must be deserved. And how? Giving customers good reasons to express them.
But let's see, why, if those customers are so upset, don't they say it?
4 common reasons that inhibit the customer's claim
- The client is resigned, and has no hope that his claim will make a difference. Unfortunately, experience shows us that most of the time, expressing our claim is useless. We are resigned as users, and we do not want to get into trouble uselessly. If we have another provider option, we will change without saying anything.The customer does not plan to use the same service again. Occasional customers are less prone to complaint, because they will not enjoy the enhancements that, at best, they can help implement. For that reason, they are not interested in wasting their time and energy expressing their complaints. Complaints are not encouraged. Despite the great benefits of knowing the true opinions of customers (including complaints and claims),most organizations don't like to receive them. They see it as a blow to pride, or as a threat to the people who work providing the service, and for this they do not encourage the client to express himself. When a client seeks to make a claim, if they do not have the means to do so very at hand, they will weigh their annoyance against the expected profit, and inaction will win. It is an annoying process, which implies losses for the client. Most complaint-receiving processes are very unfriendly to the customer. You must call several times, wasting your time and money, explaining your problem to different people, feeling that you are "working for" the organization, which should proactively take care of knowing and solving your problem.or as a threat to the people who work providing the service, and for this they do not encourage the client to express himself. When a client seeks to make a claim, if they do not have the means to do so very at hand, they will weigh their annoyance against the expected profit, and inaction will win. It is an annoying process, which implies losses for the client. Most complaint-receiving processes are very unfriendly to the customer. You must call several times, wasting your time and money, explaining your problem to different people, feeling that you are "working for" the organization, which should proactively take care of knowing and solving your problem.or as a threat to the people who work providing the service, and for this they do not encourage the client to express himself. When a client seeks to make a claim, if they do not have the means to do so very at hand, they will weigh their annoyance against the expected profit, and inaction will win. It is an annoying process, which implies losses for the client. Most complaint-receiving processes are very unfriendly to the customer. You must call several times, wasting your time and money, explaining your problem to different people, feeling that you are "working for" the organization, which should proactively take care of knowing and solving your problem.You will weigh your annoyance against the expected profit, and inaction will win. It is an annoying process, involving losses for the customer. Most complaint-receiving processes are very unfriendly to the customer. You must call several times, wasting your time and money, explaining your problem to different people, feeling that you are "working for" the organization, which should proactively take care of knowing and solving your problem.You will weigh your annoyance against the expected profit, and inaction will win. It is an annoying process, involving losses for the customer. Most complaint-receiving processes are very unfriendly to the customer. You must call several times, wasting your time and money, explaining your problem to different people, feeling that you are "working for" the organization, which should proactively take care of knowing and solving your problem.that you should proactively take care of knowing and solving your problem.that you should proactively take care of knowing and solving your problem.
How to deserve the claim of customers
For the above reasons, to deserve valuable customer claims, we must:
- Give hope to the client that his complaint will be fruitful and will represent a benefit in the end. A very effective way to do this is to demonstrate how they have acted on complaints from other customers.
A few days ago I was reading an article where a hotel manager said that, when they delivered their satisfaction surveys to clients, they told them what they had done with a previous complaint from another client, demonstrating the improvements implemented. They are irrefutable evidence. If today the client enjoys the benefits of another client's complaint, it is a great incentive to express their own.
- Facilitate the customer's claim process. Any collaborator should be able to receive a claim, and if necessary, refer it himself to the appropriate person. Do not pass the customer like a hot potato from place to place, so that he can find the right person. If a customer had the impulse to complain, the doors should be opened wide to receive that invaluable information. Take the complaint and proactively follow it, and in the process inform the customer of its status. This will give you assurance that your claim was taken into account and is being handled effectively. Normally, it is very useful for a person to be responsible for the claim from start to finish, even if it must go through different hands, to ensure that it reaches a good port, and does not get stranded on the way, or fallen in a transfer of hands, or misplaced.
The same TARP study tells us that 92% of customers who complain and their complaint has been resolved satisfactorily the first time, do business with the company again. It is worth knowing and effectively solving customer problems!
