Council Post: Seven Ways To Leverage Customer Complaints For Positive Business Growth

Customer complaints are an inevitable part of a business, but it can be discouraging to deal with them. A good leader knows how to look at customer complaints and see what factors need to change. And a truly skilled leader can take these complaints and turn them into the positive power needed to motivate and direct business growth.

But no matter what stage your company is in, what’s really important in growing any business is knowing how to receive and learn from criticism and use it to create future positive customer experiences. Below, seven professionals from Young Entrepreneur Council talk about how leaders can grow and improve their businesses by constructively using customer complaints.

Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Share And Track The Feedback

One of the best ways to turn a customer complaint into a productive, actionable activity is by tracking the feedback and understanding if the request is something other customers also feel. We track all customer feedback and requests in an internal tracking tool that categorizes their request to a specific feature or improvement. Similar customer requests will all be grouped together so we can see if it’s a highly requested feature. When we make the improvement, we’re able to see all the customers that requested the feature and share with them that we listened to their feedback and took action. – Nanxi Liu, Enplug

2. Ensure You Hear And Resolve Every Complaint

Customer complaints are inevitable for any business. But at the end of the day, organizations should ensure that every customer’s complaints have been heard and resolved. We all have been there, when a customer was ticked off because of a delayed response, there were misunderstandings and uncertainty and it got worse from there. The last thing you should do is try to offer an immediate solution. It can probably backfire and make the customer even more upset. The better strategy is to listen to them very carefully and get into a frame of mind of more agreeableness and understanding. A customer is often unhappy because of unsatisfied emotional needs. You need to make them feel that you understand them and acknowledge their problems by hearing them out completely. – Kelly Richardson, Infobrandz

3. Take The Opportunity To Identify Bad Habits

Customer complaints should always be approached as an opportunity. The feedback is essential to identify issues that may have become bad habits or bad processes. Having a regular feedback process, such as annual surveys or follow-up surveys after a purchase, is a must-have for any business. Surveys should be a mix of ratings and open-ended questions. Share the feedback with the whole team and set a plan and direction on how the company will improve. Share this with customers through a response to any negative or low-rated feedback, and share good feedback too. – Jennifer A Barnes, Optima Office, Inc

4. Improve Your Marketing Strategy And Operations

Rather than looking at customer complaints as a bad thing, see them as an opportunity to make improved changes to your marketing strategy and business operations. If something isn’t working for your customers, it’s better that you know about it so you can move forward the way they want. Without the support of your customers, you can’t make sales or drive conversions. Use the negative comments to see how you can do better so you can grow your business to new heights. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

5. Use Them To Optimize Your Offerings

Customer feedback, especially negative feedback, will help you and your team improve your products or services. Negative feedback is an essential part of any business. Without criticism or feedback, there’s no way to improve and move forward. Any time we receive any type of mediocre or negative customer feedback or complaints, we use it to optimize our offerings so we can deliver the best possible product or service to our customers in the future. Customer surveys and questionnaires are so valuable to any business, so we suggest that all entrepreneurs use them. – Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

6. Show You Care By Enhancing Your Customer Experience

The fact that someone cares enough to tell you that there is an area for improvement within your business is a gift. You now know where there is room for improvement, not just for that one customer, but for all others, as well. If one customer is complaining, there is a good chance that others are experiencing a similar pain point with your business. Multiple positives can come out of this situation. First, it gives you a chance to make things right with the customer who lodged the complaint by showing that you care and want to make it right. Second, you can now work to improve the systems and operations of your business to ensure that all of your customers and future customers have a better experience with your company, which can lead to brand evangelists over time. – Diana Goodwin, MarketBox

7. Improve Your Decision-Making Process

Learning from negative feedback helps you make better decisions moving forward. At the end of the day, all customers want is to feel heard, validated and empathized with. Responding to a negative public customer review in a way that shows you care will humanize your business and endear other potential customers who’ll see that you did the right thing when there was a problem. No business is perfect and we all make mistakes. It’s how we handle those mistakes with authenticity and a genuine desire to remedy them that makes the difference. – Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage

Speak Your Mind

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Get in Touch

350FansLike
100FollowersFollow
281FollowersFollow
150FollowersFollow

Recommend for You

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Subscribe and receive our weekly newsletter packed with awesome articles that really matters to you!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

You might also like

Kanye West Is Now Officially A Billionaire – And...

After months of requests, the hip-hop superstar shared financial records, revealing details about his...

Parley CEO Reassesses Our Environmental Future In Light Of...

“In this moment of uncertainty and intense sorrow, we realise our vulnerability,” comments Cyrill...

Council Post: 10 Ways To Be There For The...

Managers have the difficult responsibility of achieving their own goals to meet the business...

Airtel stock swings on foreign stake confusion – Times...

MUMBAI: Confusions about the permissible foreign holding limit in Bharti Airtel, as stated by...