Handling Customer Complaints

Overview / who should attend and why?

Handling customer complaints can be difficult, but successful companies rely on satisfied customers. Customers are increasingly demanding the best, fastest and most convenient. If a customer feels their complaints and objections aren’t being heard and dealt with effectively, they will take their custom elsewhere. Being able to listen and respond to a customer’s complaint in a positive manner will be an important step in creating long-term customer loyalty.

This course helps you to develop the range of professional interpersonal and communication skills required to deal with complaints with confidence.  Practical examples, role-plays, self-appraisals and discussion forums are used to enable you to develop the skills to ‘think on your feet’ and leave the customer reassured.

Aimed at front line staff whom are in daily contact with customers either face-to-face or over the telephone.

Course Objectives

• Gather information, even in a tense situation, in order to deal with the real problem
• Defuse customer anger and build rapport
• Communicate with confidence and assurance
• Maintain professionalism under pressure
• Create customer satisfaction
• Provide a solution
• Monitor and analyse complaint levels and identify remedial action

Course Content

The Complaint - How to Control It

• Making sure the complaint does not escalate
• The various techniques required to handle written, telephone and face-to-face complaints
• Accepting customer feedback graciously
• Re-building the customer relationship
• The damage complaints can do to your organisation

Communication that Works

• Gathering the information
• Active listening
• Successful telephone techniques - the do's and don'ts
• Checking understanding
• Developing the right attitude - feeling good, thinking positively
• How to sound confident, caring, and helpful - building rapport

Remain Calm - Not Over-reacting 

• Defusing a difficult situation
• Identifying common ground
• Gaining the customer's respect
• Recognising how serious is the customer's concern
• Empathise with the complaint - don't join in the criticism

Creating Satisfaction from Dissatisfaction 

• Taking responsibility for the successful outcome
• Let the customer know what can/will be done about their complaint
• Ensuring the customer feels listened to
• Getting across your point of view - re-building commitment
• Monitoring complaint levels versus performance standards
• Identifying processes to deal with the most common objections
• Influencing the organisation - collectively looking to avoid future problems

Costs / Duration and Location

• The cost of this training course is £350 ex VAT
• The duration is 1 day
• Can be held in-house or at various locations throughout the UK, contact us for further information