Online reviews and complaints are a common thing nowadays thanks to the emergence of review sites such as Yelp. Unfortunately, online reviews and complaints do not fade away even after issues have been resolved. At some point, your e-commerce business may experience something similar. Even if complaints may seem unfair, it is our responsibility as business owners to provide exceptional customer service and take any complaints seriously.
In this regard, we have come up with the My Business Venture complaints resolution guide—your crash course for handling and avoiding customer complaints. After reading this guide, you will be able to manage complaints and poor reviews properly, and use these instances as a springboard for improving your e-commerce business.
The Top 10 E-commerce Customer Complaints
To understand customer complaints, you must be aware of two important pillars in e-commerce: customer service and customer experience. Customer service mainly refers to the person-to-person interactions, while customer experience refers to the way customers interact with your business as a whole, from the representatives and services to the technology and products.
When either pillar (or worse, both) is poor, customers will have a tendency to voice a complaint. Some of the more common customer complaints in e-commerce include:
1. Not Being Called Back When Promised
This is a very common customer service issue. There are times when a representative needs to get off the phone to resolve an issue and promises to call back within a set amount of time, but fails to do so.
2. Treating Customer as if (S)He is a Nuisance
An irate or rude customer can be difficult to deal with. Although responding to rudeness with rudeness is a natural reaction, there is no place for such behavior when communicating with customers.
3. Getting Stuck in a Phone Maze or Jumping Through a Lot of Hoops
Everyone has a schedule to follow, and most customers will take time out of a busy schedule to contact your business. Imagine the frustration a customer must feel when they need to take five or more steps just to get in touch.
4. Not Being Contacted When a Problem Arises or After a Problem is Resolved
If something goes wrong, we’d like to know about it immediately. From failed transactions to unforeseen difficulties, customers expect to be notified when something goes wrong and when issues have been resolved.
5. Not Having an Explanation for a Problem Not Being Resolved
Few things frustrate an already disappointed customer than a representative going “uhh….”. Not knowing what is going wrong can easily facilitate a loss of trust in your business.
6. Employees Hiding Behind Company Policy
Employees are always expected to follow protocol, and sometimes, they are left with no other resort but to cite your company policy to justify certain actions or prohibitions to a customer. Unfortunately, this practice often makes customers feel like your business doesn’t care about them.
7. Billing Error/Incorrect Charge to Credit Card
Billing errors can be costly to customers. This is especially true when a customer is mistakenly billed the wrong amount—or worse, the wrong customer is billed.
8. No One Knows What’s Happening with the Order
Customers expect their orders to be delivered within the timeframe they were provided. When the items fail to arrive, customers expect you to know exactly where the package is currently located.
9. Inadequate Support
People need to have a way to get in touch with you. Unfortunately, e-commerce exclusive businesses tend to have a lack of face-to-face contact. Make sure that you have multiple channels to accept calls/messages from customers.
10. Website is Difficult to Navigate
Customers want to find what they’re looking for in an instant, and aren’t afraid to try a competitor if your website isn’t up to par. In fact, a study from KISSmetrics shows that 79 percent of online shoppers who are dissatisfied with the performance of a website are less likely to buy from the site again in the future.
Understanding Customer Psychology
Many business owners treat interactions with customers like a business process. Interacting with customers, at its base level, is more of a mix of communication and psychology. It is important to have a keen understanding of what motivates your customers and what your customers expect.
In the case of customer complaints, the motivation of your customer would be to have some kind of issue fixed. What they expect from you would be to at least lend a sympathetic ear and that the representative they are speaking to cares about their problem. With this in mind, customer service representatives must utilize this understanding of the customer’s psychological and emotional state to communicate and resolve the issue.
Failing to do so can often lead to flaring tempers and even more complaints made against your business.
In retail, there is one undeniable truth: people buy from businesses they like and trust. Therefore, your goal is to make your customers like and trust you through excellent customer service and customer experience.
Wear Your E-commerce Customers' Shoes: Run Simulations
What’s the best way to see if your business is actually providing excellent customer service and customer experience? Put yourself in the shoes of your customers, of course!
You may run your own business, but you are also a customer everywhere else, meaning you have a wealth of experience to keep track of. Remember the times you experienced great customer service, as well as the times you were frustrated by poor customer service. What exactly made those experiences great and terrible? Incorporate those conclusions into your own customer service processes.
You can also choose to hire a third party to go through each process as if they were actual customers. Ask them to rate their experience and provide you with a list of things they believe you need to improve upon.
Make the necessary adjustments and try again. Don’t forget that these kinds of changes are a continuous process, so be ready to make numerous tweaks.
Managing Expectations
There are times when mismanaged expectations sink your business. For example, a customer may believe that an order will be delivered within two days, but what you really meant was two business days.
Many complaints can be avoided by properly setting and managing the expectations of customers from the get-go. Here are a few tips to help you do just that:
State Clear Parameters
First of all, minimize the use of “fine print”. Although fine print is unavoidable at times, never use it as a way to alter the basic promise of your offer (bait and switch). When offering your customers something, be clear and concise. Leave no room for misinterpretation. Never promise something that you know is out of your control.
Second, be consistent with all your channels. If your radio ads claim that users can enjoy 30 percent off when they use a particular code, you better make sure that your Facebook post for the same code also offers 30 percent off. In other words, make sure that your entire marketing efforts are conveying the exact same message.
Underpromise and Overdeliver
Underpromising is a method where your business promises something basic. For example, “we can ship this to you within five days.” It’s a basic promise, yet one that perfectly sets the expectations of your customer. The beauty of this is that underpromising helps you make sure that whatever you promise your customers is reasonable and consistently achieved.
Once you’ve underpromised, the next step would be to overachieve. Don’t forget that underpromising helps you set the floor; this means that there is room to do even better. Using the delivery example, how happy do you think your customers would be if they found their package delivered to their doorstep the very next day? They’d be overjoyed, and are more likely to rave about your “quick delivery” online for others to read.
Own Up to Your Mistakes and Improve
When an error does occur, denying the occurrence of the mistake makes your business look petty and uncaring. One of the best examples of this would be this epic meltdown from an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, as documented in this Huffington Post article.
Empathize with Customers and Offer Solutions
You and your employees have all experienced the frustration of poor customer service at some point. This should make it easier for you to empathize with your customers. Instead of pointing the blame at someone else, own up to your mistakes and apologize. You’d be surprised by how many customers calm down once they hear a sincere apology.
Don’t stop at the apology though. Use this chance to repair your relationship. Offer reasonable and effective solutions to resolve the problem your customer is experiencing. Promise to use the issue as a way to improve how you do business and make sure you actually do improve.
How to Deal with the Top 10 E-commerce Customer Complaints
Now that you have a better understanding of the mindset you need to be in to effectively handle complaints, here are a few suggestions for the most common e-commerce customer complaints:
1. Not Being Called Back When Promised
Ask customer representatives to keep a daily calendar in their workstation. After committing to ring back, have them list down the name, contact number, and related issue on their calendar. This will help remind them to call back.
2. Treating Customer as if (S)He is a Nuisance
Empathize with your customers, offer a sincere apology, and keep a level head. Ask your representatives to smile as they talk to customers over the phone. It makes them sound sympathetic and sincere much easier.
3. Getting Stuck in a Phone Maze or Jumping Through a Lot of Hoops
Revamp your phone technology to make options straight to the point. Try to make sure customers can speak to the person they need to speak to within two to three clicks.
4. Not Being Contacted When a Problem Arises or After a Problem is Resolved
As soon as a problem is identified, representatives should inform their superior. Afterwards, a quick call to the customer informing him or her of the problem and what you are doing to resolve the issue should be made.
Once a problem is resolved, representatives should follow up with the customer. A simple “Hi, . We just wanted to check if everything is okay now. Is there anything else we can help you with?” can make a lasting impression.
5. Not Having an Explanation for a Problem Not Being Resolved
If things are not resolved within the expected timeframe, do not wait for the customer to call again. It’s best to call immediately and reset the customer’s expectations. Never point the finger at someone else.
6. Employees Hiding Behind Company Policy
Revise company policies to ensure that they are customer-centric. You should also provide wiggle room for your representatives—in other words, special cases where it is fine to forego company policy.
7. Billing Error/Incorrect Charge to Credit Card
Always double-check invoices before sending them out and contact the customer immediately if you notice a billing error. People tend to be protective when it comes to their hard earned money. If there is a need for refunds or returns, process them immediately.
8. No One Knows What’s Happening with the Order
You need to create a support structure for your sales and support departments, allowing them to track each order from their end. The structure that Amazon has in place is a great case study.
9. Inadequate Support
Aside from having multiple channels (phone, email, social media, etc.), it is imperative that your representatives understand your business model, your products, and your complaint resolution scheme.
10. Website is Difficult to Navigate
It’s all about redesigning your website for ease-of-use. One of the best ways to test this would be to get your least tech-savvy friend and have them try your website. If he or she can navigate it without any problems, you’re good to go.
Addressing customer complaints, acting on customer feedback, and improving your business is a never-ending process. If you would like to learn more, sign up for the MBV University, our own program designed to help small business owners receive continuous education regarding running and sustaining a successful online business.
No comments:
Post a Comment