The 5 Rules to Dramatically Improve The Way you Deal with Customer Complaints

A lot of the behavioral sciences can feel intimidating. However, it doesn’t have to be. The Five Rules Podcast Series is our attempt at giving you an easy entry point into the complex and messy world of Behavioral Science.

Does your organization like to pretend that complaints never happen? When they do happen, does the company sweep them under the rug and hide them from everyone involved?

If so, you are not alone. Many organizations have the wrong approach to customer complaints. They see them as a problem that should never have happened. However, complaints can be a great way to get real-time feedback on moments in your Customer Experience.

In this episode we explore the five rules to help organizations deal with customer complaints. These rules help you come to better outcomes with your dissatisfied customers and how to see complaints for what they are: opportunities to improve what’s broken in your Customer Experience.

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

When it comes to handling customer complaints, there is no substitute for understanding how customers feel and showing them empathy. However, there are few other things to remember, too. Our five rules clarify the process and make it more likely that your customer complaint process will make things better instead of worse, both for customers and your bottom line.

• 03:21 We share the first rule about reading between the lines; understanding the real issue is key to good resolution, which is not what happened with Colin and his insurance company.
• 11:10  Colin reveals rule #2, which is about giving your employee the leeway and authority to resolve issues on their own, without having to get permission from someone else.
• 19:06  Ryan and Colin discuss the merits of resolving issues quickly with Rule #3.
• 24:42  Moving into the last two areas, the fourth rule is to change how your organization perceives complaints; seeing them as the free advice on your Customer Experience that you pay thousands to consultants to discover.
• 27:09  We discuss how to use empathy to resolve issues for the customer and make them feel like you care; resolving without empathy does not have the same effect. 
• 30:13   Colin gives a quick summary of the five rules and encourages listeners to write in with their business problems to get some free advice.

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Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on Linkedin and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.