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>>Complaint
Handling Tips
Here
are some really good articles loaded with practical,
easy-to-implement complaint handling tips...ideal for
customer service representatives, call center agents,
and anyone who interfaces with customers.
Complaint
Handling Tips:
7
Simple Guidelines for Responding to
Email Queries
E-commerce
experts seem to agree that an immediate response is
expected for all email inquiries - immediate being
within the hour – and the final answer/resolution
must be given within 2 business days. According to
recent research by Jupiter Research (www.jmm.com) only
one third of companies bother to immediately acknowledge
they received a customer’s email by sending an
automatic response. In Jupiter’s research, most
companies did eventually respond, but only 52% did so
within 24 hours and 32% took three days or longer, or
did not respond at all.
It’s important for companies to meet customers’
expectations for email response; otherwise your
customers may initiate communication via more expensive
means – live operators, postal mail, etc. Or worse,
your customers may defect to the competition and spread
negative word-of-mouth advertising. Following are 7
simple guidelines for responding to email complaints in
such a manner that maintains customer loyalty.
1. Check emails as frequently as you check the
phones. You answer the phones every time they ring
and emails should be treated the same way. It’s not
acceptable to check customer emails one or two times
daily or hourly. Email response must be a priority.
2. Send an initial reply immediately – certainly no
later than 1 business day. The easiest and most
economical means for an initial reply is to have an
automatic reply setup through your complaint tracking
system or other software package. Some software packages
are sophisticated enough to read the customer’s email,
pick up on key words and reply based on email content.
Other, simpler, packages simply respond with content you
input. Your initial response can be as simple as:
Thank
you for contacting us. Your email is being reviewed by
our Customer Care Department and we will contact you as
quickly as possible with a response.
3. Reply
via email. Customers contacting you by email are
suggesting that email is their preferred method of
communication. Unless absolutely necessary, avoid
calling or sending a response via postal (snail) mail.
(Obviously, refunds or token items would still be sent
postal mail.)
4. Resolve problem within 1-2 business days. The
sooner the better. Email customers do not have tolerance
for a 5-day turnaround.
5. Activate the spell-check feature. Spelling
counts. Always, always proof emails.
6. Capture and archive emails in your CRM system.
It’s critically important to log all email
communications (both to and from the company) in your
customer relationship management (CRM) system with dates
and times. This helps you when emails are escalated,
information is misinterpreted or there is an accusation
of no response from the company.
7. Post a FAQ section on your company’s Contact Us
page. Identify the top 10 reasons customers email
your company and post responses to these queries on your
website. Doing this can reduce the number of emails
coming into your department or can better prepare your
staff to respond. For example, At Thrifty Rent-A-Car
System hundreds of customers contact Customer Care each
month requesting a copy of a past rental agreement. The
Customer Care Department has created a form on the
website specifically for customers requesting a rental
agreement. Amazon.com has forecasted dozens of FAQ
customers are likely to encounter and listed them on
their site.
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I
just want to take a moment to "thank you" for
your very valuable Tuesday Morning e-mail newsletter.
Our Customer Satisfaction Department finds it extremely
valuable and helpful in our mission to satisfy customers
every day. We also share the many great ideas and tips
for handling customer complaints with our franchise
owners. Thank you again... we hope we can continue to
look forward to Tuesday Morning for a long time to come.
Beth
Vickers
Director
Customer
Satisfaction Department
McDonald's
Corporation
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