Your most unhappy customers are your greatest sources of learning.

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft

You are bound to face situations when things go wrong from a customer’s point of view. Don’t be dismissive of your customer’s problem, even if you are convinced you’re not at fault. Often you will be dealing with a customer’s perceptions, and in this context they are as important as the facts of the case.

Although it sounds like a paradox, a customer with a complaint represents a genuine opportunity for your business:

• If you handle the complaint successfully, your customer is likely to prove to be more loyal in the future as if nothing had gone wrong in the present.
• People willing to complain are rare. Your complaining customer may be alerting you to a problem that has been experienced by many others who silently took their custom elsewhere. Remember to thank them for doing you this favour.

Complaints should be dealt with courteously, sympathetically and above all swiftly. Sympathy or empathy is important because it shows that you understand and take into account the customer’s disturbed feelings. Strike a positive note from the beginning.

Make sure that your business has an established procedure for dealing with customer complaints and that it is known to all your employees. At the very least it should involve:

• Listening sympathetically to establish the details of the complaint.
• Recording the details together with relevant material, such as a sales receipt or damaged goods.
• Offering rectification, whether by repair, replacement or refund.
• Appropriate follow-up action, such as a letter of apology or a phone call to make sure that the problem has been made good.

If you’re proud of the way you solve problems and rectify errors – by offering no-questions refunds, for example – make sure that your customers know about it. Your excellence at dealing with customer problems is one more way to stay ahead of your competitors.

Always remember, however, that it is still more excellent not to create the problems or commit the mistakes in the first place. And you will find, too, that it is far more cost-effective!