Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by David
Guest Post by Patrick Bailey
Starting a business is not a walk in the park. It takes patience, hard work, resilience, and sacrifice to get it off the ground and running. However, that may not be the only hard part: Keeping your business afloat and maintaining growth is another challenge altogether. That is why top-notch customer service is a must.
A common problem among businesses is disgruntled and dissatisfied customers due to bad service. A single negative review can hurt your business more than you can imagine, especially in these instant-access social media times. Picture this, a negative post on Facebook, Twitter, or even a blog post by one unhappy customer could be detrimental to your business. It has the potential to reach thousands or even millions within a very short time. You very well may lose possible and even existing customers who fear going through the same experience.
What can you do to win back customers lost due to bad customer service?
1. Listen, Take Responsibility, and Apologize
One of the first steps to winning back your lost customers is taking responsibility. If the customer feels the service they received was not at par with their expectations, that is how they feel, and you can’t change it. The least you can do is listen, give an explanation of what happened, and reason with them while being sympathetic. Also, at the very least offer an apology.
A good and sincere apology can convert a customer with a negative experience to one of the most loyal customers to your business. To achieve this, you must make the customer feel that you hear them and understand how they feel. It is also wise to make them know that they are of great value to your business by assuring them that such an encounter will not happen again.
Every time a customer raises an issue, do your best to come up with a satisfying solution. That can go a long way to make you win back lost customers.
2. Establish Customer Complaint Protocol
Management should come up with a straightforward process of how to handle customers’ complaints. Every complaint should be well documented and reported to the appropriate department or person for action. Once you establish the complaint’s legitimacy, the team should find the root cause and come up with a solution.
Once you come up with a solution, it is important to follow up with your customer. Inform them of the steps you have taken to ensure that such service will not occur again. To communicate, do it face-to-face, via phone call, an email, or any other way that you may deem appropriate.
3. Compensate
A customer may feel aggrieved for a couple of reasons: poor customer handling, faulty product, wasted time, billing issues, among others. If you establish the cause of your customers’ dissatisfaction, it will be easy to offer a solution. If it is possible to compensate for a product or a service, it should be the business’s responsibility to do so without delay. By doing so, chances are you are going to win back your customer. Compensating the customer may not only make them return, but it can also help you earn their trust again.
4. Use Social Media to Encourage Feedback
Negative reviews on social media can hurt the reputation of your business. However, how you handle that is a different ballgame altogether. You should never ignore a negative comment or review. Why? It will give you negative social proof, which would give other potential customers a reason to dislike or distrust your brand.
While there could be “trolls and haters” on social media giving bad reviews on social media, it is crucial to respond to issues raised to stir up trouble. Also, make sure you respond to negative feedback by providing a tailor-made response to match your customer’s needs. While some will try to get on your nerves, you should always remain objective and professional.
Corra, a Branding and marketing strategy firm, conducted a survey to establish social media reviews’ impact. The majority — 88% — of the respondents said they take reviews on social media seriously, and they will change purchase decisions based on the reviews.
5. Create a Marketing Campaign to Control Damage
According to Forbes, 94% of customers will avoid businesses with negative reviews. Therefore, if you have experienced a surge in widespread negative reviews, then it is time to develop a reactive strategy for damage control. In such times, a marketing campaign is ideal. Be sure to solely focus on the needs of customers.
After analyzing and rectifying situations where the customers are not happy, make sure you update them on the changes you have made to improve efficiency. The burden is on you to prove that things have changed for the better. Remember, there’s always a competitor out there who is looking to capitalize on your mistakes. It is also good to remember that in addition to trying to win back the customers you lost, it is also an opportunity to win new customers.
Great customer reviews can improve your sales and positively boost your brand. On the other hand, a bad review can bring down your business through dipping sales and hurting your brand. Having excellent customer service will have a significant impact on your success.
Today, great customer service is often the first thing most people look up even before checking products. According to Capgemini, up to 80% of customers have no problem paying more in exchange for an excellent customer experience. If your customers realize that you value them, they will trust your business and become loyal.
We all know the saying, “the customer is always right.” While this may not be entirely true, your business should always strive to maintain and grow positive engagements with its customers. Therefore, it takes a lot of work to get new customers, keep the existing ones, and win back the ones you had lost.
Training your workers on proper communication skills and good public relations maneuvers will help a great deal, too.
About Re:amaze
Re:amaze is a modern helpdesk and customer messaging platform designed to help eCommerce businesses boost customer happiness and revenue. Re:amaze allows all customer-oriented teams to work together in a shared inbox through email, social, SMS, voice, and live chat. Re:amaze also comes packaged with automated messaging and chatbots so eCommerce brands can succeed at the front lines of conversational commerce.
Author Patrick Bailey
Patrick is a professional writer mainly in the fields of mental health, addiction, and living in recovery. He attempts to stay on top of the latest news in the addiction and the mental health world and enjoys writing about these topics to break the stigma associated with them.