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4 Ways to Keep Product Liability Complaints Out of Court

Frontline customer service representatives are the greatest influence in keeping product complaints from becoming product claims.

It's absolutely true. As a customer service representative, you are the first line of defense against product liability claims and your carefully planned response and diligent handling of the complaint can keep the issue out of court.

Here are four specific things you can do, from the first moment you realize you're dealing with a product liability complaint. These approaches are designed to diffuse anger, rebuild trust, and most importantly, keep product liability complaints from becoming product liability claims.

1. The first thing you can do is unbelievably simply, yet highly effective. Apologize!

Believe it or not, studies have found that the mere act of apologizing to customers reduces lawsuits, settlement, and defense costs.

A bold new initiative called Sorry Works has been saving a VA hospital in Kentucky thousands of dollars in settlement costs. According to Victims and Families United, Sorry Works says when medical mistakes or unanticipated outcomes occur; doctors and hospitals should thoroughly review the facts of the case and quickly notify the patient and/or families with the findings. If an error or mistake is found, the hospital should apologize, offer answers, and provide a fair settlement up front. Providing a fair settlement upfront is as essential as the apology.

The Lexington, Kentucky hospital has practiced the Sorry Works approach for seventeen years and has reduced lawsuits, settlement costs, and defense costs. Only three cases have gone to trial over the seventeen year experience of Sorry Works, and the average settlement is $16,000 versus the national VA average of $98,000. Furthermore, cases are closed in 2 to 4 months instead of the usual two to four year average.

Wouldn't you like to realize these benefits in your business? It's surprisingly easy-just apologize upfront and sincerely when the company is clearly in the wrong, provide answers, and provide a fair settlement.

2. Provide an immediate resolution to problems. The faster the resolution, the more of a sense of satisfaction your customer will experience, AND the less likely THEY are to come back and sue you.

3. First, focus on diffusing anger.

Research has shown that an approach to problem solving that emphasizes anger diffusion first results in a lesser payout by the company. If you first work to diffuse anger and then move into problem solving, you will find that communication is much easier/because your customer is able to really listen to you. Problem resolution is now possible because your customer is calm and in the position to rationalize. Beginning the problem solving process before addressing and diffusing anger makes your job much harder//because your customer is emotional and not able to fully rationalize. If you do attempt to solve the problem or negotiate, you will almost always have to offer more to satisfy the customer than you would if you had successfully first diffused anger.

4. Go overboard to express empathy to your customers, particularly if the customer making the product liability complaint is angry.

When dealing with rage or verbal abuse, an effective approach is to express empathy in a low and sincere tone. A past issue of Computerworld magazine reports that 83% of network managers have seen computer users trash keyboards, shatter monitors, smash mice, and kick hard drives. Talk about a difficult customer! One help desk professional says his chief strategy for dealing with the rage of computer users is to empathize with this statement: "I know how you feel, I've felt the same way myself and this is what I've found." Just imagine how calming this statement would be to you if you were the computer user experiencing a problem.

The idea here is to diffuse anger and create calm, because HAPPY customers don't sue!

Deploy each one of these strategies the very next time you're faced with a product liability complaint and you will find that you are resolving problems faster, easier, and with far less of a payout.

Click here for more on product liability claims.

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