Top 10 Customer Complaints

Today’s post is about some of the top complaints customers call or write in about. Dealing with them is not rocket science but requires patience, and in some cases, the ability to re-evaluate and change some of your internal processes. So, without further ado, in Letterman-style, the top customer complaints and some constructive ways to handle them.

Top  10 Customer Complaints:

  1. Not being called back when promised.
  2. Being accused of doing something wrong and/or treating customer as if s/he is a nuisance.
  3. Getting stuck in a phone maze or jumping through a lot of hoops – e.g. explaining the situation to multiple people to get a problem resolved.
  4. Not being contacted when a problem arises or after a problem is resolved.
  5. Excuses and/or not having an explanation for a problem not being resolved.
  6. Employees hiding behind company policy.
  7. Billing error/incorrect charge to credit card.
  8. No one knows what’s happening with my order!
  9. Inadequate technical support.
  10. Website is to hard to navigate.

Helpful Tips:

1. In customer service, the most important characteristics include the ability to follow-up and follow through. As an ecommerce operator, you don’t have the luxury of face-to-face contact with customers that can make it easier to diffuse a situation before it escalates. In general, it’s a good policy to be good about following up and doing what you say. Remember this quality when looking to hire customer service staff.

2. When a customer is upset, it’s best to reserve judgment and work on resolving the issue. If you must explain what went wrong, try to not use the word “you”. Instead, focus on what went wrong rather than the person who made the mistake. Don’t place blame, even if your policy is stated clearly on your website and the customer agrees to the terms. It’s important to acknowledge they are upset about the situation, then proceed to helping the customer toward resolution. Remain professional and business-like with the goal of serving the customer’s needs first. Customers can perceive even subtle inflections in tone suggesting they are being bothersome. Focus on fulfilling a customers needs and you’re less likely to get caught up in a heated argument or have attitude. If this is difficult to do, consider asking for a position in the company that does not require customer interaction.

3. Ever gotten stuck in an impossible phone maze? Most businesses need technology to be more efficient. But you need to ensure that this technology is not hurting your business. Having a complicated phone system that requires extensive button pressing and is difficult to navigate may further frustrate an already disgruntled customer. Just as the rule online is “no more than 2 clicks away”, don’t make customers push more than two buttons to get to the right person.

4. The worst way for a customer to learn there’s a problem with their order is when it doesn’t arrive on time. Don’t be this kind of merchant. Give customers plenty of notice if there’s an issue with an order. Just emailing the customer is not enough. A problem with a customer’s order warrants a phone call, email and voice message. Create a process to keep customers in the loop , so that if something does go wrong, they’ll know about it right away.

5. Customers want to know why a problem arose but spare them the finger-pointing and blame shifting and get to the resolution and apology. Whenever you give a reason for why something didn’t happen, be truthful but thoughtful about how you are representing your company. Excuses are high on the list of customer complaints.

6. Hiding behind company policy is one of the most common complaints customers have about online businesses. So frequently do they hear the phrase “it’s against our company policy” it’s no wonder customers feel that policies are conspiracies against them. Evaluate your company policies to ensure they are customer-centric without creating opportunities for customer abuse.

7. When it comes to their money, people, in general, become very protective. Anytime there is an issue with credit card and billing, it is important to right the wrong. People feel violated when they are charged incorrectly, especially if it’s a large amount. Be sure to credit returns promptly, because not doing so can impair the trust you have built. Customers want to trust that you will handle this process quickly so they can feel confident doing business with you again in the future.

8. Nobody knows what happened to my order. One reason Amazon is so successful is that they built a great infrastructure to support sales and marketing efforts. When one places an order on Amazon, it’s practically on a customers door step the very next day. I continue to be amazed at the speed of Amazon Prime’s delivery. Amazon has become the example by which all other ecommerce stores are measured. Customers trust Amazon because they know that when they press the “submit” button, or “add to cart”, that the order will be handled right away. And they take comfort in knowing, each step of the way, where their order is in the queue.

9.  If you run an online business, customers expect to have a decent experience on your website. If they don’t, you can be sure you’ll get a lot of technical support calls. By the time a customer is calling technical support, they may already be pretty frustrated. The worst thing a customer can experience is to be talked down to or made to feel stupid. And when your technical support doesn’t seem to know that much about the product, it adds salt to wound. My recent such experience was with a software purchase where the technician didn’t seem confident in the solution he was providing and, on top of that, he gave me attitude. If you are the business owner, please be sure that the person in this role is someone who has teacher-like qualities and hands-on experience, so they’re not just reading instructions from a technical manual.

10. With today’s stiff competition, it’s imperative that your website exudes professionalism. Follow ecommerce best practices, make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for, not just in the selection of products, but in the website’s usability and design. Just because it looks nice, doesn’t mean that it is intuitive or easy to use. Try the “mother-in-law” test – no offense to mother-in-laws – but if she can’t understand how your website works, you’ve not done your job.

If your company is having one or more of the issues above, such as not being able to simply find a customer’s order, it’s time to make some immediate changes. Social media has given customers a megaphone with which to air their grievances and complaints. Don’t be the ecommerce store that has all negative comments and complaints on their Facebook page or twitter stream. It’s a lot harder to undo damage than it is to head it off in the first place.

By: Shirley Tan

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