Regardless of how well you conduct yourself and how thorough you are in your work, it’s inevitable you’ll occasionally find yourself on the receiving end of a client complaint. This will always suck.
When someone criticises you, it’s very natural to feel a strong negative emotional response. The emotional control centres of your brain interpret criticism as a direct threat to your safety, and will trigger the same response it would if you were under physical attack.
But reactive and defensive behaviour will not help your cause – better to let your logical brain take over from your limbic system and institute a proactive plan in dealing with complaints.
Five simple steps
Here’s a proven five-step approach to dealing with client complaints:
1. Listen
Listen carefully to what the client has to say (preferably in person). Approach them with empathy and try to see it from their perspective.
Avoid formulating a response in your head while they are still speaking, or focusing on the reasons why they are wrong and you are right. Try (and I mean really try) to understand why they are upset, then verbalise this to them: “I can see where you’re coming from – I understand why this looks bad and why you are upset.”
2. Critically evaluate the merits of the complaint
Sometimes people have an unreasonable point of view, but very often they don’t. They might have blown it completely out of proportion, or have a distorted understanding of a situation, but it’s rare someone complains where they don’t have some legitimate basis for the complaint – at least in their eyes.
Remember: what seems trivial to you might be a big issue for your client.
Stay open to the possibility you may have done something wrong or could, at least, have done something better. The reasons and excuses, however valid, shouldn’t matter, only how it was perceived by your client and how you can fix it.
3. Fix it, if you can
Do the extra test, get it in for a recheck, do something that is over and above the expected level of care; this is an opportunity to make the unhappy client into a lifelong fan.
4. Make an apology
If you can’t fix it, apologise. Sincerely.
Explain what went wrong and what you have done to prevent similar problems from occurring again.
5. Try to make up for it
If it is within your decision-making power; don’t be scared to offer some sort of financial compensation.
It doesn’t need to be an admission of guilt: “We’ve looked carefully into the decisions made with this case, and I can’t see that any mistakes were made. However, we strive to keep our clients happy, and you clearly feel you didn’t receive value with us, so I’d like to offer you x, y or z.”
This doesn’t always need to be money back (but it can be); offer a discount on a subsequent visit, follow up x-rays free of charge, or offer to donate money to their favourite charity in their name. If a relatively small amount of money early on during negotiations can make the problem go away, it might save you a lot more time and money down the line.
Turning bad into good
This approach of firstly allowing for some critical self-evaluation, and then simply focusing on being fair and reasonable can save a lot of pain an effort, and can potentially turn these unpleasant situations into valuable opportunities for learning and growth.
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