effective ways to handle customer complaints

Regardless of what online business you prefer, customers are the heartbeat of it. You cannot ignore the influence of customer feedback about your business. Your business cannot grow if you don’t know how to handle a customer complaint. There are so many internet platforms related to customer service, so people have become increasingly vocal about customer complaints. They want to let the world know whether their experience with your company was negative or positive. By going through these online reviews, customers find it easy to make their buying decisions.

Individuals connected with customer service usually have to suffer. The reason is that no matter how great their customer care plan is, they have to see several individuals register complaints regarding their business. According to a study conducted by huff post, there is always a customer out of 26 individuals who are unsatisfied with a particular business and register their complaint about it.

What is a Customer Complaint?

If you want to ensure the long-term growth of your business, you must understand what a customer complaint is. It is defined as a statement created or delivered by the customer who is not happy about your business. The dissatisfaction could be related to your company’s products, services, brand, or the industry in general. Customer complaints can also be classified as negative reviews on a brand's website or a social media page. However, it is vital to ensure that you don’t include constructive criticism and trolls in the same bracket.

youtube customer feedback

Image taken from YouTube

Trolls are just there to provoke a reaction from you, and it may even have nothing to do with your brand. It is just based on propaganda to destabilize your brand. Therefore, it is not necessary that you must respond to every negative comment out there. However, if someone out there gives you constructive criticism of your website, you can respond and manage it effectively. After all, criticism is also there for the betterment of your website. If you understand the ways of handling a customer complaint, you can control the negative reviews on your website.

Best Ways to Manage Complaints

1) Calm Personality

If you want us to recommend one of the essential tips on handling a customer complaint, we suggest you have a calm personality. If you tend to get triggered by the slightest of negative reviews, you cannot handle customer complaints. Every customer is different, and they all have their respective body language and mentality. Therefore, you must treat them all differently and equally.

a refund policy

Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website

There are many reasons why the customers may not be satisfied with your business. They may not like your refund policy, product photos, delivery process, etc. There can be a case when the products are delivered on time, but they are damaged. Similarly, you may have uploaded blur product photographs on your website. Due to the lack of quality customer service, they may post negative reviews about your company and its products.

2) Resist Criticism

If you do not know how to handle a customer complaint, you cannot consider yourself a successful entrepreneur. If you tend to ignore customer complaints, it doesn’t mean they will vanish from the Internet. Instead, they will increase, and it will come to a point where you will find it challenging to maintain the credibility of your business. The only way in which you can minimize the negative complaints is by understanding them and resolving them appropriately. Regardless of whether you agree with their points or not, you should have the personality to listen to their criticism.

3) Acknowledge the Problems

When you come into the domain of customers, there are many different types of customer complaints that you will receive. It can be about your business operations, website, products, services, or brands. Once you listen to their complaints, you must acknowledge their problems if you see them. There are many types of complaints that help in the evolution of your business. Once your business achieves its goals, you may reflect on that feedback and consider it essential.

frequently asked questions

Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website

If you recognize some of the criticism your customers are giving, it doesn’t mean that you agree with it. It just means that you understand their context and try to find the best possible solution for them. You can include a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to ensure you anticipate the questions they can ask.

4) Thank Them

It is part of human nature that you apologize to someone whose feelings are hurt because of you. When it comes to handling different types of customer complaints, you must have the same approach. When you deal with dissatisfied customers, you must apologize to them for negligence from your end and make sure that you don’t repeat them. As a professional, making a mistake is never a bad thing. We are all human beings, and we make mistakes, but it is important not to repeat the same mistakes, and this is where the complacency of customers comes to the floor.

In a professional career, ego is a huge factor. It may bring you to the top with unmatched heights, or it can get you to an unexpected decline. However, you must have a humble nature and swallow your pride. If you put your ego to one side, you can prioritize building healthy customer relationships. If your business has humble employees, they are the first to apologize for their inconvenience. They think about the business rather than their landmarks, which is why the concept of ego is nothing more than a meaningless distraction to them. Egoistic nature creates a troublesome environment, resulting in a decline in your business’s credibility.

5) Make it Quick

If you know how to handle a customer complaint, there is a chance that you have conducted your business operations effectively and without any waste of time. When you have customer complaints, you must take quick action. Customers will not wait for days to get their problems sorted. They take note of everything, mainly how you handle their complaints. Therefore, when you get information regarding customer queries, you shouldn’t waste time resolving them.

If you allow the customers to wait for too long, there is a chance that they may leave negative comments about your brand, putting your credibility at stake. The more you allow them to wait, the more likely they will spread negative comments about your business. If you can resolve the complaints quickly, the same customers will be regarding your services and write positive feedback. Strikingly allows you to create a review section on your website, where you can attach all the positive feedback.

6) Provide 24/7 Customer Service

If you want to resolve different customer complaints quickly, you must prioritize customer service 24 hours a day. Including the live chat function as part of your website will make it easy for your customers to deliver complaints daily. The most important thing is that you receive complaints within a few seconds, which allows you to take care of those queries instantly. Once you take the correct action, you can make your customers aware of your plan.

live chat support

Image taken from Strikingly

Strikingly fully believes in prioritizing customer service to increase online sales. Therefore, we have given customers the authority to influence online businesses through their opinions and feedback directly. We enable you to include the live chat feature as part of your website, which allows your customers to interact with the website owners directly. It is not cost-effective on Strikingly as you can upgrade to a Pro Plan of $16 per month and receive annual bills.

Strikingly’s Input on Customer’s Perspective

If you look at the most successful entrepreneurs, they all try to ensure that they don’t let any kind of customer complaints come to the floor. Some try so hard regarding their business plans that they prioritize everything related to customer feedback. If you want to ensure that your business doesn’t receive multiple types of customer complaints, you must have a proactive approach and rely on Strikingly.

![a professional website](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/s7pB8IxCSc-lSvAHYhBqfFjYLxjZexpRQ9XYQhdRSJ6WK1D_xYUpuq37TwtyBEQ1sP3b_kddLFQ1fWyC_KP_p1POuSMEP3FsxwVoU78n7KTMGkSZQJm_42wuX1zyy_W0tmtslsxVLyk_lXl9pVs "a professional website" =602x272)

Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website

Strikingly give you a platform to create a fully-functional website without any problems. A free website builder allows you to create a professional website without breaking a sweat. You can create quality website designs without writing a single line of code, which helps in the consumption of time. More importantly, your website will be accessible to the public within 48 hours of publishing.

Conclusion

If you look at any online business worldwide, they all have the ambition of having happy customers as part of their client base. The only way they can have a group of satisfied customers is by resolving customer complaints effectively. If they think that they can brush the negative reviews under the carpet, they are mistaken as the digital world doesn’t allow anyone to hide from their incompetence.

If you want to ensure that you fulfill your customers' demands, you must rely on a quality website builder, such as Strikingly. Once you complete the registration on our platform, we will give you a domain worth $24.95. The domain's value may change as per the domain plans an individual has. However, there is no doubt that we will do everything to make your business website a success. If you struggle to create your professional website, you can collaborate with our Happiness Officers today. So, create a fully-fledged business website and live up to your customers' expectations.