Customer Complaints Handling

Customer complaints are an opportunity to fix problems and improve service. Customer complaints can involve:

• goods that are damaged or not delivered at all
• receiving the wrong goods or the wrong quantity
• goods that were not received within the time specified
• invoices with incorrect pricing or quantity
• poor provision of service
• poor handling of customer complaints.

When we answer a telepon call, as soon as the caller starts speaking use the following telephone procedures:

• record their name, telephon number and address
• use the caller's name often in our conversation as it sounds more friendly
• quckly establish the purpose of the call by using the questioning techniques listed bellow
• write down the main points of the conversation, we can then repeat these to the caller so that we both know the information has been communicated correctly.

There are some important points to remember when dealing with customer. Do not:

• sound irritable and impatient
• give customers the feeling that we want to get rid of them
• pass customers on from one person or departement to another
• leave the caller sitting on the line any longer than necessary
• use slang or offensive language
• carry on a conversation in the background with someone else while speaking to a caller
• put your hand over the mouthpiece and say something you think the caller cannot hear.

But we must do:

• use the tone and pitch of our voice to sound cheerful and positive
• smile when speaking on the phone, this helps we to sound cheerful
• try to be genuinely interested in the caller's query of problem
• try to help callers before we transfer them to someone else
• listen effectively to prevent misunderstandings
• use emphaty to try to appreciate the other person's point of view
• know who is responsible for the different products or aspects of the business so that we can transfer the caller to the corect person quickly and efficiently.