Not every person is able to adequately respond to negativity directed at them. Therefore, companies for which working with clients is important must teach their staff how to properly handle complaints and resolve conflicts, rather than aggravate them. This activity is carried out in two main directions and includes both preventing the occurrence of conflict situations and their analysis in order to solve the problem.
Of course, ideally, negative reviews should not be received at all. However, all people make mistakes, and the emergence of complaints from customers about various aspects of the company's activities is inevitable. If you have already received an appeal, then you need to draw conclusions from it and take measures to prevent such situations from occurring in the future.
It is necessary to find a why choose our service weak point in the company structure or work process and develop a backup plan in case of failure. For example, a supplier may not deliver raw materials on time. This does not depend on the company, but it will affect the fulfillment of its obligations to customers. In this case, you can increase the production time of the product or change the partner. If you see that a problem may arise, warn the client about it and apologize. The worst thing is to present the consumer with a fait accompli or try to shift responsibility to someone who, in your opinion, is really to blame. Clients do not care about such excuses; they count on the integrity of your company.
In addition, it is necessary to remember the existence of the human factor. All employees complain from time to time about inadequate behavior of clients.
In order to identify the competence of employees and prevent impolite treatment of customers, many companies use the services of mystery shoppers. Such people act as an ordinary consumer who is very picky about the product presented. They deliberately provoke a conflict and evaluate the reaction of the staff in such a situation.
In addition, it is important to constantly conduct training for employees to develop their stress resistance and correct response to customer complaints. For such events, you can hire a qualified trainer or independently create patterns of employee behavior in typical conflict situations.
For organizations with a small budget, it is important to regularly conduct internal trainings with role-playing dialogues, in which employees will alternately portray a specialist and a conflict client. If such training is conducted in the presence of all personnel, then when discussing a hypothetical situation, it will be possible to find new ways to resolve the conflict.
Dialogue with a potential reader
The manager should remember that the lack of proper authority of the employee often prevents a quick and easy resolution of a conflict situation. For example, a client in a beauty salon had her hair dyed in a shade different from what she wanted. The administrator could resolve this issue on the spot by signing her up for a repeat procedure in the near future. But free coloring must be agreed upon with the director of the salon, who is not always in touch. Thus, the resolution of the conflict is postponed, and the client remains dissatisfied. Expanding the authority of employees can reduce the number of complaints, especially in the area related to serving people and providing them with services.
Download a useful document on the topic:
Checklist: How to Achieve Your Goals in Negotiatio