From Customer Complaint to Customer Loyalty

When you work in hospitality, or in any industry that delivers customer service, you will have to know how to deal with complaints.

Providing good customer service means striving to deliver a great experience. But we all know hospitality is a people-business and mistakes happen. So occasionally we have to deal with complaints, but it’s how you deal with these complaints that matters.

A couple of things you should know. Firstly, word of mouth is probably the most powerful marketing tool for a business. But beware, as this applies to both positive and negative word of mouth. Another thing to realise is that bad customer service is more frequently shared with others than good customer service. This is exactly why knowing how to deal with customer complaints or feedback is so important.

When you receive a customer complaint, not all is lost. Receiving feedback gives you an opportunity to improve and grow. Even more so, it gives you the chance to start building a relationship with your customer and hopefully convert them into a loyal customer. See my tips below for better complaint handling.

Listen

When someone has made the effort to speak up and make their complaint or give feedback, make sure to listen. Even though it’s not fun to be on the receiving end of the complaint, do realise that the customer might feel uncomfortable about the situation too. More often than not customers who make a complaint mainly do so because they want to be heard. Try not to immediately interrupt but let the person speak. They need a bit of time to let their frustration out and they are looking for understanding. Remain calm and encourage the customer to talk and give you all the information.

Show Understanding and Compassion

It is very important to acknowledge the person’s emotion and show them your understanding. Show them that you heard what they had to say by repeating the problem and tell them that you understand their disappointment/ frustration/ anger. Don’t skip this step as you want to show the customer that you care. If you are rushing to find a practical solution, without having shown some understanding, it may look like you are just trying to “get rid of the problem”. If there was a clear mistake or wrongdoing at your end, admit to it and apologize.

Investigate

If the situation is not completely clear, make sure to investigate and find out what happened. Let the customer know that you will investigate. This shows you are taking the matter seriously and that you are doing something with their feedback. Always get back to the customer with your findings. Try to give a short explanation but refrain from using too many excuses. Even if it’s a case of a misunderstanding, the last thing you’d want is to argue about who was right. The customer experienced discomfort so keep that in mind and move on to finding a solution.

Offer a Solution and/or Compensation

Depending on the complaint try to come up with a suitable solution. Sometimes there are simple solutions at hand. For example if the complaint was about the food being cold you can offer to take it back and have a new dish prepared. Check with the customer if they are happy with the solution you are offering. In addition to fixing mistakes and depending on the severity of the complaint you may want to offer your customer something else. This could be a gesture like a complimentary drink or dessert or maybe you’ll need to pull something bigger out of the bag. The costs that you incur here are usually not that great but are more than worth it to make sure your customer leaves with a smile on their face.

Thank the Customer

Always make sure to thank the customer for bringing issues to your attention. It is important that your customer knows that they can provide feedback, good or bad, and that you do want to hear it. If anything, it gives you an opportunity to improve.

I recently sent over feedback to a fine dining restaurant where my husband and I had enjoyed a dinner. The staff was friendly and attentive and the food was amazing but we couldn’t help but notice a few service mistakes. Upon our arrival home we also noticed we were charged for items we didn’t consume. I was a bit hesitant on whether to contact them or just leave it. I ultimately decided to send a kind email to make them aware of a few things that I felt could have improved our visit. They welcomed the feedback, took the time to investigate, got back to me with an explanation and mentioned how they were looking to avoid these matters in the future. On top of that, my husband and I were invited back for a lunch with their compliments and were refunded the items we were accidentally charged for. They had gone above and beyond to make things right with us and show their appreciation for the feedback. I can only say I was very impressed with how they dealt with it. Chances are we’ll be back in the future!