What is one reason negative customer comments and complaints are important to an organization?

But how do you know if your customers are happy or unhappy with what they get? That’s right! You can learn it directly from the customers themselves via feedback. Especially from customer complaints.

What are Customer Complaints?

Customer complaints can be defined as the expression of customer expectations that have not been met in what business promises in terms of the product or services.

Why Collecting Customer Feedback is Important?

It is no longer a secret that online customer reviews and a great online reputation are essential for your marketing success. It has become a common practice for people to check online reviews before buying a certain service or product.

‍According to statistics,

85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Moreover

74% of people who see customer reviews on a business website say they would contact the business.

Besides bringing new clients, gathering customer feedback has many additional benefits and can open a lot of new possibilities for your company.

One of them is that you don’t need to spend huge sums of money on marketing surveys, as feedback provides useful customer insights for free.

Free Customer Feedback Survey Template‍

Importance & Benefits of Customer Complaints

However, not all the feedback you get is positive. According to reports,

34% of consumers are more likely to leave a bad review after a negative experience as compared to 28% who are likely to share their good experience.

As an entrepreneur, it may be frustrating to receive criticism and unfavorable comments about a product you have put your heart and soul into. But you should not take it personally. As a matter of fact, if you look at them from another angle, you will see that customer complaint are quite valuable. In fact, they can be a game-changer for your business.

And here are the main reasons why:

1. Customer satisfaction enhancement

Many people, when unsatisfied with a product, will keep it to themselves and simply stop using your services.

However, those who do share, usually express not only their own feelings but those of other customers too. So when you address their feedback and provide a quick resolution, you are likely to make more than one customer happy.

A report by Harvard Business Review showed that when complaints are handled in a timely manner, clients who filed them usually become more satisfied with the service and more loyal to the company.

2. Product/service upgrade

When clients report encountering some problems with your product or service, or simply features or aspects they do not like, this is the gold. You no longer need to look for ways how to make your service more appealing to customers to ensure that they keep choosing you over your competitors.

Customer complaints serve as a source of insights on what areas should be worked on and upgraded. Additionally, by studying bad reviews you can find new good ideas for improving your product that you haven’t thought of before.

3. Improvement of policies and procedures

Most companies have a number of policies and procedures designed to make the business run more smoothly.

However, you don’t always know if they are working as intended and suit your company's needs best. Luckily, negative feedback often highlights flaws in your internal processes and contains hints on what is not working or is unclear to customers exactly.

By analyzing this information, you will be able to judge which procedures need improving and which you should simply give up as they are inconvenient or not needed. At the same time, you also receive feedback about your staff and whether they manage their responsibilities.

4. Boost in customer communication

Besides, customer feedback also serves as a channel of communication between your company and the clients. The statistic shows that the biggest percentage of clients leave companies because they feel like the latter does not care about them.

For many of them, it is important to know that their opinions are taken into account. Furthermore, when clients know that there is an open line of communication and their input matters, they are more likely to stay loyal to your company and spread the good word.

5. Positive impact on brand image

Having an open channel of communication where customers can report problems with your service or bad experiences also positively affects your brand image. It improves your reputation and makes your company look trustworthy and caring.

The more you tend to go the extra mile to address the reported issues, the more satisfied your clients will be. And happy customers are more likely to share their good experience with their colleagues, friends, and family, which only helps to spread the word and build your reputation.

What Should I Do If a Customer Complaints?

As you can see from the above reasons, complaints are essential for your product growth, but the way you deal with them is crucial. For example, arguing back is one of the worst ways of dealing with bad reviews. Even if you are not at fault, getting on the defensive will only make you look weak.

That is why you should always keep your cool and stay polite. It is also a good idea to apologize. Like it or not, customers complain when their expectations have not been met. Often, they just want to be heard, so let them know that what they’ve got to say matters to you.

Try these 7 proven steps to respond to customer complaints and turn an uncomfortable situation into something constructive for customers and your business.

• Address to your customer by name
• Apologize to the customer
• Sympathize with customer’s problem
• State you’re solving the problem
• Offer a gift
• Ask the customer to change the review
• Put up with negative reviews

For more advanced tips and real case examples, check out our in-depth blog post about responding to negative feedback.

Different Ways of How Feedback is Collected

There are many ways about collecting customer feedback. One of the most common and effective uses is surveys. Similar to feedback forms sent to your clients via email, this method allows you to decide what questions to ask your customers based on your goals.

Using social media for gathering feedback is another popular approach. According to Foundr, not only social media can be a great place for advertising and selling your product, but it is also great for measuring metrics and understanding customer needs. They are more likely to leave candid reviews on social network platforms where they have an audience.

You can also learn a lot by checking the website analytics, for instance, what pages are most visited, where users spend more time, details about failed searches, so you can find what information needs to be added.

Conclusion

Even though it may not seem like this at a first glance, customer complaints are a blessing in disguise. With the right approach, you will be able to use them to your advantage and take your business to a new level. The most important element of every business is its clients. The more clients you have, the more successful your business will be. And the best way to maintain the existing clients and obtain new ones is by keeping them satisfied with the service that you provide.

Clasping a shiny new set of Iron Man headphones in one hand and a bag of Dove chocolate in the other, I stopped a very kind sales associate in the Target electronics department and asked if he could point me in the direction of the headphone extenders. After searching multiple aisles, he admitted defeat and apologized profusely. I thanked him anyway, made my purchases, and headed over to Best Buy in search of my elusive cable.

I checked the obvious places it might be stocked, but after coming up empty handed, I attempted to locate a sales associate for help. There were plenty of blue shirted employees milling about, but it was impossible to catch anyone's eye - it was almost like they were avoiding me on purpose.

I laid in wait behind an end cap for about five minutes before springing into the path of an employee wandering by. After I asked where I might find headphone extenders, she waved vaguely to her left and said, "Probably in the headphones aisle." Before I could reply that I had already searched the aisle twice, she had walked off, ignoring my half sputtered response.

Needless to say, I left without headphone extenders. I thought briefly about notifying the company via Twitter, but after wading through numerous complaints where customers initially received a response from support, but never a resolution, I decided to let it go. I also made the choice never to shop at Best Buy again.

Target, however, will continue to have my complete devotion - and at least 20% of every paycheck.

Stop Avoiding the Problem

Here's the thing. If a customer were to walk up to you in the store and complain, you'd respond, right? Yet customers complaining on social media are largely ignored - about 70% according to a study from Maritz Research and Evolve24. This is seriously bad business.

Social media is no passing fad; it's a communication channel that more and more buyers are turning to. Customer experience management company, Market Force, points out:

"The emergence of social media has given consumers a whole new way to interact with the brands they love - and a forum to complain when brands disappoint. But what many companies have learned is just how powerful connecting one-on-one with customers can be when those consumers take the time to post."

In other words, if a customer makes the effort to contact you by means of social media, you better respond. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in the hot seat. There are three reasons why ignoring your customers on social media can backfire. Let's go through them, shall we?

1. Customers Loathe Being Ignored

When customers use social media to complain, it's usually because a company already failed to satisfy them through traditional customer service channels. They're also incredibly angry, so provoking them further through inaction is ill advised.

A study from Conversocial found that the way customers are treated on social media has a considerable effect on their feelings toward a company. In fact, if ignored by companies on social media sites:

• 45% would be angry

• 27.1% would stop doing business with the company completely

The Customer Experience Impact Report for Oracle had even more to say on the subject of ignoring customers:

• 50% of consumers give a brand only one week to respond to a question before they stop doing business with them

• 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience

So there you have it. If you don't respond within a week, your customers are likely to switch to a competitor. By the way, don't even think of deleting a complaint - it will only snowball into something much worse.

2. Potential Customers Are Watching

When angry consumers turn to social media to vent, the whole world is watching - including current and potential customers. Conversocial found that 88% of customers are less likely to do business with a company that ignores complaints through social media.

It makes sense. Much like how I assumed Best Buy would fail to resolve my issue based on what I saw on Twitter - potential customers will weigh how you treat your buyers along with price and quality, and they're far more likely to pay extra for a better customer experience.

3. You Can Turn a Negative Into a Positive

Believe it or not, angry customers just want to be heard. Even if you can't solve their problem entirely, the fact that you're listening goes a long way. The Maritz study reported 83% of complainants who received a reply, liked or loved the fact that the company responded. The simple act of responding to the complaint was enough to help improve the customer's experience. Furthemore, Oracle found that 22% of consumers who received a response to their complaint ended up posting a positive comment about the company. How's that for turning lemons into lemonade?

How to Keep Your Finger on the Pulse

Anywhere your customers are talking, you need to be listening. Start by setting up a Google Alert to catch mentions of your company name - not only is it quick and easy, it's also free.

Assign a person (or team) the task of responding to any customer feedback received via social media - even the positive stuff. Give them the authority to decide what feedback is relevant and deserves a response, and to offer support until resolution. If you prefer not to offer full support via social media, redirect complainants by responding with other contact information, such as email or telephone number.

Whatever channel of communication you settle on, remember to do the following when dealing with complaints:

• Listen. This is the perfect opportunity to improve several aspects of your business.

• Don't argue or make excuses.

• Acknowledge the customer's concerns and offer further steps.

• Apologize and say thank you.

When you ignore consumer feedback on social media, you miss the opportunity to make positive improvements to your products and services, make a real connection with actual people, and most importantly, you lose customers entirely.

And I'm sure I don't have to tell you that without customers, you have no business at all.