How to Handle Customer Complaints By Scott Phelps At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Any time you work with customers or have a client base, there is the chance that there will be a complaint about the work or a service you have provided. How you handle such complaints could mean the maintenance or loss of customers and of your good reputation. Having a prior plan of action can help turn complaints into repeat customers.

We're all human-there's no denying that. Being human means that we are imperfect, and as such may from time to time make a mistake. We might otherwise fall behind on our current work or be unable to meet deadlines due to a family crisis that arises. How you handle any complaints could be the make or break of you as an at home worker.

The best situation of course would be that you never received a complaint from a customer or client, and there is the possibility that in some situations, complaint could be avoided. If for instance you get sick or a situation arises at home that requires your attention at the expense of your normal working time. You should consider how you would handle the same if you worked for a company outside of your home.

You would contact your employer, most commonly by phone to inform them that you are unable to come in. The same should apply to work at home, though obviously since you are both boss and employee it would be your customers or clients who you endeavor to contact.

Contact may be by email or telephone depending upon how you normally do business, and should be to inform customers of the problem and the possible delay in their order or work due. If you are hospitalized and unable to do this it may be wise to delegate this task to someone you trust.

This may not be enough to keep everyone happy and so you may be left facing your first complaint or lost client, and the task now becomes minimizing the damage to your reputation. An unhappy customer is much more likely to talk about their experience than a satisfied customer is. One of a number of things may satisfy the customer and you must use your judgment as to what will help-the same applies to complaints over the standard of your products.

If a refund is requested it is often best to comply, especially if you fear the client may leave bad reviews about you online. Otherwise you may wish to see if the customer would give you a chance to make right the situation. If they refuse, stating that a refund is all that they want then offering to complete the work for free after issuing a refund may prevent there being significant ill feeling.

If the problem was with a product manufactured by you then offering a replacement may be in order, or else repairs to the faulty item. Some customers may become frustrated at being asked to return an item for repair since that requires action on their part, which would not have been necessary if you had not sent a faulty item. Accepting the loss of that item may be needed.

Avoiding complaints where possible is the best thing for your at home business, but where this isn't possible then the aim should be to make your customer happy. In any customer service business, reputation is extremely important, so protecting your reputation must be the utmost importance. Though this may involve the uncomfortable necessity of apologizing and eating humble pie whilst making reparation, the results of failing to do so may be very bad for business!

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