What have you learned from your most unhappy customers?

Dear Amal,

After spending ten years dealing with happy and unhappy customers, I have learned5 lessons:

1- Always be open to discussing problems with your customers.

2- Listen and empathize – consider the reasons behind the dissatisfaction and hurt.

3- Be personal and caring - don’t brush them aside with automated, standard responses.

4- Say sorry and acknowledge the problem – even if you believe you are not in the wrong.

5- Show your affection when you’re in the wrong – but don’t overdo it!

6- Give customers and complaint handlers access to someone who can come in to mediate when a solution cannot be found but a continued relationship is still required.

7- Take time to think about your actions and look at ways to improve the way you do things in future.

Regards,

Hany Sewilam AbdelHamid

Head of Business Development | Sales & Marketing

Entrepreneurship Coach & Consultant

Digital & Social Marketing Certified Expert

Most of the unhappy customers teach us in many ways, it purely depends on their misconception regarding the products or services also depends whether it a FMCG product or a consumer durable product. 

They teach us our core weaknesses among us where we missed in dealing with them, it also helps us in working on these weaknesses and convert it to our strengths.

They teach us we could not get upto their expectations and how do we bridge the gap, this helps in correcting ourselves for the next customer experience.

This in return effect  our brand image or will have affect on our repeat sale & referrals..

A referral customer speaks about our product for10 another customer and unsatisfied customer breaks our50 customers is the theory where most of the companies follows.

- How to be patience

- What I am offering is not completely satisfactory, I need to revise my product or service

- Try to evaluate your customers before they get unhappy

*Respect Values*                         Thank You.

Unhappy customers are very important for any  organisation or a salesman. They clearly indicate that if their valid concerns are addressed, they can be a good prospect. Following are key learnings from an unhappy customer:

1)  they are good source of insights to study customer behaviour

2) they end up becoming your customers if their issues are handled tactfully 

3) they contribute normally better than a satisfield customer in improving services, quality and correcting value for money for the products/ services 

4) they help in the growth of a salesman,  indire toy. Salesmen handling such customers effectively get more opportunities to handle tricky situations

If you want to keep your customer .... you need to find out what happened ... why it happened and resolve the problem

I have learned many things from unhappy customers like

1-Friends rejection makes you a better salesperson always remember it's goods to experience an unhappy customer.

2-My sales journey by making this unhappy customer to a happy customer-friends it doesn't come like a windfall it comes by burning the midnight oil.

3-Never give up if you meet an unhappy customer identify his issues ,admit your mistakes and be sincere and honest in your approach ,don't argue with the customer that the last thing a salesperson can do.

The following key information can understand and learn from unhappy customers?

1.  Strengths and weakness 

2. Good conflict resolution procedures in place or not

3.  Can under stand Complaint handling process in place or not

4. Which team members need more customer service training

5. How you can improve your services or products

6. How you can improve or change the way to sell the services or products.

They may go and never want to be your customer again or do business with you again and this is a big lose for me but for those who lay complains to you,you try to know what went wrong. Examples:  if the customer complains of a low quality service then you apologies politely and step up, then try as much as possible to upgrade to a higher quality to make the customer smile but if the customers gives no second chance as some May not want to take the risk again then  you put in every efforts to make sure it doesn't repeat itself again

Not to disrespect owners of out of warranty products. if it is too costly to provide phone support then provide support forum which is a cheaper option. 

Hi

An unhappy  customer is someone  who have not been  provider  with  right goods or  services. Putting  myself  in customer's  shoes i understand  their  dissatisfaction  towards  us  and  exceeding  expectation  to help them .