How to satisfy unhappy customers?

Many people want to know how they can deal with unhappy customers. Well, the first thing is to ask about the reason. Why are they unhappy? Because sometimes the customer is right. (Of course, there are occasions that customer is not right, too).

It happened to all of us. For example, we go somewhere, and one of the personnel asks us to go to other floors for a signature, a confirmation, etc. Here, the policy of that company or organization should change.
Another example is when a customer is buying something from a store. The product doesn’t have good quality, or the seller promises something which won’t keep. These are the reasons that make unhappy customers. Here, the customer is right.

We have to see how can we compensate for our mistake and improve the parts that are not good enough for the customers.

Some sellers can’t keep their promises about the delivery date and time. They can change their delivery system. Or they can tell the buyer that it will be delivered at eight instead of 6. When we say 6, the customer expects to have the product at 6.

Keep your promise as a seller to avoid having unhappy customers

I was in a bank a few days ago, and I saw a man wanted to pass his check. The banker said he couldn’t do anything and the customer started raising his voice until the banker accepted his request.
Not only this banker wasn’t a customer oriented, but also he showed other customers that he could do as they ask when they shout and raise their voice.

So we have to be careful. If we can do something, we have to do it faster. We don’t have to let the customer get mad and then fulfill his wish. of course if we are sure that we can do it.

On the other hand, when sellers can’t do anything, they start making excuses, interrupting the customer or trying to reason with them with the wrong reasons to convince them that they weren’t wrong.

I have a multi-stepped method to solve this problem and deal with unhappy customers.

1- Listen to unhappy customers

There are many times we are criticizing, and the listener doesn’t let us talk and interrupts us. The customers often want to feel better, so they talk. They want someone to hear them out and nothing else.
Most of the time when you listen to their talks and complaints and say I am sorry to hear that in the end, they stop and don’t complain anymore.

2- Say you are sorry

If you are a customer oriented, you won’t have unhappy customers

We haven’t learned to apologize and say we are sorry to hear they are upset or in pain. We think being sorry means “it was my fault, I am sorry.”
No, this is not what apologies mean.

If a kid fell two meters away from us, we all feel sorry for him. It doesn’t mean we pushed him.
Apologies in criticism are the same. It means I am upset because you are. We can say:
I am sorry for the situation that made you angry.
It will help the customer to calm down and feel better.

3- Ask questions

Another professional way is to ask some questions.
Instead of saying you are sorry, you can ask them a good question.
Asking question helps the customer to know the exact problem. And when they are so angry, a question makes them stop, relax and think about the answer.
Because when we want to answer a question we use the logical part of our brain, and we want to analyze the issue but being angry is emotional. The person has to turn off his emotions (and anger) to answer the question logically.

To sum up, we have to listen carefully, say we are sorry and ask a relevant question.
For example,
May I know when this happened?
Would you mind telling me in which section did it happen?
Can you tell me who did this?
Give me more information, and I seek for its reason immediately.

It means your concern is my concern and I can’t see you unhappy. That’s true. You should be upset and concern because their unhappiness fails your business.

Unhappy customers talk to each other about bad quality of your work and it’s bad for your business.

I always tell this to people who want to start a business. Imagine your customers as your parents and friends when you want to solve their problem.

After we ask a question, it’s time to make it up to them. For example, we can consider a discount or a small gift. If the internet of a network company disconnects, they can extend their net for two more days after that. This way they can deal with unhappy customers much easier, and it may not even cost so much.

Someone asked me before about customers who want more and have more requests when they see we want to compensate for our mistake. These customers’ demands don’t have economic justification, and they cost us much.
Some sellers see repayment as with paying a ransom.
I can’t give a TV with a fringe to compensate for a mistake. It doesn’t worth it. One of our biggest mistakes is that we want to keep all our customers happy.

No!

No matter what we do and how much effort we put into our work, there are always people who don’t agree with us and don’t think like us.

We have to define what will we do for payment and don’t pay anything more than that unless the damage is significant.

I hope you can deal with unhappy customers easier after reading this article.