The customer is the purest form of quality control. Without their approval, your business will not grow or thrive. So when customer complaints come in, it’s important to listen to them, as it’s a way to improve the experience and prevent possible churn. No matter what industry you are in, there are customer complaints that must be addressed. Here are some of the situations that you may encounter and how to solve them.

Long Wait

If you have a call center team, one of the most important call center metrics is average queue time (ATH). Customers want quick answers and can’t afford an afternoon with the phone taped to their ears. In fact, research shows that customers are more likely to hang up after about two minutes, and 34% of those customers don’t call back. That means you could lose a third of your customer base just because you didn’t answer the phone fast enough. How to fix it?

A long hold time indicates two problems. First, it may mean that demand is too high for your team. If so, you should consider hiring more staff to meet your call center’s needs. Please make every effort to ensure that your phone is resolved. Another problem is that call centers are not automated. If you automate user engagement and include some of these things, you can optimize team production. Call center software can provide service teams with the ability to streamline operations and automate tasks.

Unavailable or Out of Stock

Sold-out items are usually a good sign, but customers may be in a rush to return an item if it’s out of stock. You can request a special order or recurring requests for product updates. This usually indicates a time-sensitive product need that requires immediate attention. As a customer service representative, you may not have control over when new shipments are ordered. Managers can alert both the product management and sales teams. The service representative should tell the customer to be patient and to contact them when the delivery arrives.

Repeating the Problem

Customers repeating the problem to a salesperson is probably one of the worst things for them. This happens when they are being transferred to a new salesperson or are dealing with agents who are not meticulous. It takes time to do it. If the customer is frustrated with having to repeat the issue, the best step you can take is to stop routing the call. Also, if you need to connect a client to a specialist, see if you can reach out to that agent internally and pass on their advice. This may be cumbersome, but it meets the customer’s immediate needs.

Uninterested Service

Whether due to tone of voice, personality or simply the time of day, some customers don’t get along with customer service representatives. When a representative doesn’t meet their needs, some clients attribute it to a lack of interest in their case. Sometimes that’s true, and other times the customer has more expectations than the team can deliver. Regardless of where the mistake lies, if your salespeople don’t seem invested, your company’s reputation suffers. When dealing with these types of customer complaints, salespeople should consider what they can do to provide excellent customer service.

Every business has protocols, but sometimes it’s beneficial to break the rules when it means preventing customer churn. At the very least, salespeople should pay attention to their tone of voice and body language. You should make sure that you are demonstrating positive and agile behavior.

Poor Product

Customers are expected to complain if the product breaks. In some cases, even if the product is not broken, the customer does not understand how to use it. Also, customers may not like your product or service but blame your business for not meeting their needs. Regardless of how the customer reached that conclusion, the team should know how to prevent the customer from contacting the competitor.

If the product is not broken, please let the customer know. Discover their goals and needs and how you can use your product to help them succeed. If your product breaks, provide them with a quick replacement option and find out what caused it to break. In the case of user error, gently advise your customers to avoid such consequences in the future.

No First Call Resolution

All customers expect their problems to be resolved after the first call. Research shows that most churn is avoided if requests are met within the first call. This doesn’t mean you should keep the customer on the phone, but it does mean that you should try to resolve the issue on the first call. As sales reps begin to interact with customers, they should be aware of the urgency of the case.

In the end, not all customers will go home happily; it happens from time to time. However, it is up to you to provide a good experience to reduce these cases as much as possible.