5 Customer Complaints That Jeopardise Your Business’ Reputation
Customer complaints can be a valuable asset to your business. Customer complaints are essentially feedback to let you know how your business is doing. A customer will complain because he or she is unhappy with some aspect of your business. If you fail to address this complaint and do something to prevent another in the future, this can hurt the reputation of your business. Word of mouth is essential. An unsatisfied customer will complain to family, friends, coworkers, and they may even take their complaints online. A negative review or complaint online can and will damage your business’ reputation. Here are five customer complaints and how you can prevent them:
1. Poor Quality
This complaint can be extremely detrimental to your business. Customers value their money and do not want to buy inferior products. If word gets out that your product has poor quality you may find your revenue going down and be unable to acquire new customers.
Solution: Always plan your product or service. Then plan it again. Once you have a well thought-out plan you need a supplier. Be sure and investigate the supplier for good quality control. Research other products the supplier has produced—are they high quality? Do these products have complaints of poor quality? Once you decide on a supplier and begin production, evaluate the product. Make sure these products are up to your quality control standards.
2. Slow Shipping
Customers value their time as much as their money. If you make them wait for your product they will feel as though you do not value them or their time. Slow shipping makes your business seem sloppy or unprofessional. Slow shipping demonstrates poor quality of service.
Solution: You may need to outsource your shipping to a transport company. Review and research the transport company. A shipping specialist from Meyers Transport Ltd advises business owners to assess each potential transport company’s fleet, to make sure it can handle their product volume and any special needs they may have. Choose a company whose customers praise their fast shipping and give them glowing reviews.
3. Poor Customer Service
Nothing will make a customer dislike your company more than bad customer service. This can include anything from rude employees to excessive automated phone systems. The main goal of good customer service is to make your customer feel important.
Solution: Train your employees well. An employee who is knowledgeable, friendly, and patient will go a long way towards making your customer happy. Be accessible to the customer. Provide email, phone, and keep your website functioning at all times. Provide your customer with a way of leaving messages after business hours. Keep your automated answering systems to a minimum.
4. False Advertising
False advertising misleads your customers and can completely destroy your business reputation. This can include providing misinformation about product features or claiming you provide a service and then failing to do so. False advertising can also include putting a low price on your website and then increasing it when your customers make a purchase. You want to avoid false advertising at all costs.
Solution: Be knowledgeable about products or services you are selling. If you don’t know something for a fact do not display it in a product description. Keep your website, product descriptions, and prices up to date.
5. Failure to Address Social Media
Many customers take their complaints to social media. These customers will tell other customers of their issues and may even persuade future customers not to buy your product. If your business fails to address these concerns, your reputation may be damaged.
Solution: Do not stay quiet. Respond to customer concerns on social media. Always be positive and explain to the customer how you will resolve their issue. This will make your business seem up to date. This will also give the customer the impression that someone cares and is listening to them.
Customer complaints can be detrimental to a business’ reputation if measures are not in place to prevent and address these concerns. With these solutions you can prevent many of the complaints customers might have about your business.
Source: smallbusinesscan.com
