Customer dissatisfaction is a fact for those of us who run businesses. There is no possible way you could ever make everyone happy.
So, how to best handle situations with unhappy customers?
The biggest grievance is often that they don’t feel like they are being heard. And sometimes, if it takes a lot of effort to express unhappiness or submit a complaint, the customer won’t even bother. This may seem like a good thing, but it’s not. Instead of submitting their complaint to you and giving you the opportunity to possibly solve their issue and turn a negative situation into a positive one, they will likely instead voice their frustration and unhappiness to others. This could very possibly deter those around them from buying from you.
First step – have a system in place for customers to easily complain. Not only does this show the customer that you care about the way they feel, but it also gives you the chance to turn a bad customer situation around.
- Ways to do this: Provide a pad of paper for feedback and comments, and a drop box for them, at the front desk of your dealership. Customers will see it when they come in, and they can easily stop by on their way out. Or, provide a link within your emailed receipts that customers can simply click on to provide input.
Timeliness in response to complaints comes second in importance. The more quickly you respond to an unhappy customer, the better chance you have of turning them into a happy one. That's because the faster you act, the more it shows you care, and a complaining customer's first need is attention. Even if you can't take the steps to resolve their issue right away (or at all), it's still worth the effort to quickly respond and at least apologize for their negative experience.
On an overall note, make sure employees are trained to handle customer complaints. As we’ve talked about before, the worst thing you can do as a dealership owner or manager is fail to train your employees on how to handle customers in a positive and productive way.
Be sure that your staff members understand that they need to pay respect and listen carefully to the upset customer. They should offer kindness and an apology for the customer’s dissatisfaction. That may be the most they can do, but – if possible, employees should also feel empowered to solve problems or go to a higher-up to solve a problem. If that can’t be done, the staff member should offer an explanation to the customer.
If the above process is completed with care, you should see that the customer leaves your dealership feeling at least better than they did before.
Follow up with unhappy customers via phone or email after the complaint has been resolved or apologized for. Again, this just increases the amount of acknowledgement and care that you are demonstrating for your customer. If it was a solved issue, be sure that things are still running smoothly, and assure the customer that the same situation won’t happen again. If it was simply discontent or a non-solvable issue, offer friendly follow-up and perhaps some sort of incentive to encourage them to visit again.
It may be surprising to see how easy it can be to turn a negative situation or an unhappy customer around. In some cases, you may even be able to turn that customer into an advocate of your service efforts. Very simple gestures like kindness and acknowledgment are often overlooked, but they can go a long way. Brush up on the basics, and see how much of an impact positive customer service can have.