If you are in a business, you will eventually have to interact with disgruntled customers and the way you handle the issue is the way you are going to be known in the market. Make no mistake here – a disgruntled customer will always create a large damaging ripple for your image. Carry on like this and very soon you will be known as the company with the worst customer service. You cannot afford this or you will lose business sooner than later. Hence, you need to learn how to handle a complaint effectively. Here are the rules for handling customer complaints that will promote your business better than any advertisement:

Respond instantly – when a customer complaints, respond instantly. The more they wait, the more they get frustrated and hence, would be more inclined to be unreasonable. Do not wait for their irritation to escalate to anger. Respond to their complaint message immediately.

Believe that customer’s complaint is genuine – one of the worst steps of counteraction a company can give is implying that the customer is dishonest or unrealistic. Tell the customer that you believe their complaint is genuine and you are trying your best to see what can be done to help. 

Apologize for the pain they feel not for the mistake – the mistake is not always yours. However, the complaining customer is genuinely aggrieved. Apologize to the customer for the pain they have experienced. Saying sorry for their (customer’s) discomfort is not the same as saying sorry for a mistake that your company has done. However, when you say sorry genuinely, the customer is more often than not already pacified and ready to listen to you with an open mind. 

Do your best to meet their expectations – one of the most important rules for handling customer complaints is showing that you are doing your best to help. You will find that the majority of people are reasonable in their expectations. Just knowing that you are making all the effort to help them will often open the door to negotiations on how to resolve the problem towards mutual benefit.

If it is your mistake, overcompensate – there will be instances when the customer is right. The service/ product/ experience/ was bad. If you are guilty of any such thing, the rules for handling customer complaints say that you acknowledge, apologize and immediately over compensate the aggrieved customer. In this way, you are eliminating a disgruntled customer and appointing a free goodwill ambassador for your brand; for this customer will not stop praising you after that.