Business Sphere

     Customers’ complaints are nothing new. It is inherent in any business since time immemorial. That’s the reason why many companies have their Customer Service Units, and almost all sellers have return-exchange policy. In addition, many other businesses have money back guarantee, which even now include online stores.

     While many businessmen and women treat the complaints of their customers as negative, as it impact on their product or service quality and in turn affect their revenue, yet customer  complaints may actually be profit opportunities. By eliminating the problems, you can turn the complaints into profit. It’s just like you having a sales lead, you went out and made the sale and earned money out of the transaction.

     Last night, I was reading a newsletter titled “Guide To Customer Service Excellence”, by the editors of Customer Service Newsletter. I have found the tips very good, and so I’m sharing this to you.

     Let us now look at some of these sales leads and profit opportunities.

     Customers who have the right product but are misapplying it. Most of the firm’s future growth depends on present customers. It grows as they grow. Misapplication of a firm’s products by its customers, even though they have the correct product, leads to dissatisfied customers who feel that the product is unsuited for the job intended. This in turn opens the door for competition, whose products may not necessarily be any better, but may be better understood.

     A complaint about the product by a customer is an excellent opportunity to show the customer how to get the most out of the product — how to realize its excellence, via the correct use and application. Helping the customer do the job right means helping the customer grow, which in turn opens the door for repeat sales and increased sales volume.

     Customers who complain frequently about field service.  The customer complains about: a). slowness of response; b). insensitivity to the plight of customers in a machine-down situation; c). shoddy workmanship resulting in machine failure shortly after the service technician leaves.

     If the customer’s complaints about workmanship are justified, then it will be profitable in itself to upgrade the training of service personnel, which is profitable both by improving service representatives’ productivity and at the same time reducing the necessity for callbacks.

     Customers who complain that the equipment won’t do the job. It’s not unusual that some customers will buy the bottom of the line simply because it’s all they can afford, and then complain because they actually need more advanced machinery with greater sophistication, automation, capacity, etc.  These are difficult situations usually brought on by the customer’s limited capital, but even so they can often be salvaged by offering the customer a good trade-in on used or rebuilt machinery of the proper capacity and sophistication.

     Customers who complain about loss and damage, excessive freight costs. Complaints in this category often arise from the nature of the order, less truckload, broken lots, etc. The customers involved are often first-time or one-shot customers whose only contact is by phone, and who have not been advised of economic and shippable lot sizes when placing their orders. Many of these problems can be avoided altogether by advising customers on economic order sizes, shipability of products and advisability of participating in consolidations to offset high cost of small shipments.

     Customer’s complaint must be listened to, and there are many good reasons for listening thoughtfully to all complaints-with the idea in mind that a very large percentage of them have excellent potential for conversion into sales and improved profitability.