Customer Complaints About Repeating Issues: What to Do?

Customer Complaints About Repeating Issues: What to Do?

Every business receives some complaints about their services. For example, customers may receive their goods later than expected or they could be confused with a policy that was applied. Such things can be unpleasant but it is easy to handle them in a proper way.

However, there is something you should pay more attention to if the same problem keeps arising and there are a lot of complaints about it. Maybe the checkout procedure is confusing, your appointments regularly run late, the customers have difficulties in reaching someone in the support team. It means that dealing with complaints separately can solve the problem for some time but not for good.

There is a way how a business can cope with such situations. Sometimes companies ask for help from Customer Experience Consultancy to find out what causes the repeating problems and how they can improve the processes. However, there are some ways to do it yourself and solve your troubles.

Identify Patterns in Customer Feedback

Firstly, you should find out how often does this issue happen and whether the customers describe the same thing.

Customers’ feedback may come in different ways – emails, phone calls, online reviews, social media or even face-to-face.

If such information is not systematically recorded, you won’t be able to find out any repeating problems.

At least create one place where all customer’s feedback will be gathered. It can be a simple Excel table if the business is small.

Record dates, types of complaints, product or services that are connected with this issue and how the complaints were solved.

Next, put similar complaints in categories.

For example, if customers complain about delayed delivery, the lost tracking information or unanswered shipping inquiries, you should understand that they face the same problem with the fulfilment process.

After that you should analyze these categories and understand which problems are repeated the most.

Not all customers use the same words while complaining. One of them complains about complicated website, another one talks about being unable to complete the payment process. But these two people may face the same issue while checking out the order. Therefore, don’t concentrate only on the words and read carefully what happened.

Don’t forget to look for the number of affected customers and the number of complaints about the same issue. For example, one of your clients could send you three emails about the same order. Counting each of them as a separate problem will overestimate the trouble. On the other hand, one client can talk about an unreachable booking form and it can mean that the whole process needs to be changed.

Understand the Cause of the Problem

After the identification of the repeating problem, you shouldn’t immediately try to fix it.

The first cause that comes to mind may not be the real one.

For example, let’s suppose that customers keep complaining about starting their appointments later. The first thought can be that the employees are not able to manage their time. But after the analysis you can find out that appointments are scheduled in such a way that doesn’t leave any extra time for possible mistakes.

One useful approach is asking ‘why’ until you find the issue that can be solved.

For example:

“Why are customers waiting? Appointments are running late.”

“Why are appointments running late? They take more time than expected.”

“Why isn’t there enough time? The booking system gives the same period for all the appointments.”

In this case the adjustment of the length of appointments may be more efficient than simply asking the employees to work faster.

The goal here is to solve the process itself, not the results.

While investigating, try to follow the client’s journey from start to end. What information did he get? What steps should he take? What is going wrong there? After analyzing several examples you’ll be able to distinguish between an occasional mistake and a flaw of the process.

Try to prove the assumption with some evidence. Analyze booking records, customer’s messages, steps on the website or internal handovers where it is needed. If the employees think that delays are caused by customers, the records may prove or disprove it.

Talk to Employees That Handle Complaints

These employees may give some useful information about problems that managers do not know about.

They communicate directly with clients, explain some complicated things and work with the consequences of ineffective processes.

Ask employees which complaints are the most frequent and why they are so hard to solve.

You may learn that employees use outdated information, deal with untrustworthy software or use the outdated procedures that don’t suit the business anymore.

Ask employees to give you the honest feedback without blaming anyone.

When employees can freely point out some problems, they are willing to suggest solutions as well.

It’s also useful to ask employees what would help them to solve the client’s issues.

Sometimes a little change in the internal system can reduce clients’ complaints a lot.

Employees can use some workarounds which are not known for managers. For example, a receptionist could have a private list of frequently requested information because it is not convenient to find it in the official system. Such workaround solves the problem in this moment but shows that the process is not effective.

Do One Meaningful Change at a Time

After you have understood what causes the problem, you should define what should be changed and who should do it.

Avoid changing everything at once unless there is a need for it.

The gradual implementation of improvements will help you understand what actions are really efficient.

For example, if the customers often cancel their purchases during checkout due to unclear delivery charges, show the delivery charge to the customer earlier in the process.

If the customers complain about not receiving responses from the support team, implement a system that tracks their emails and assigns the responsibility for the answering.

Set up a realistic time frame for the review of the improvement.

It doesn’t have to be difficult, but it has to solve the issue that the customers faced.

Prioritize problems according to their frequency, severity and complexity of solving.

It can be the confusing confirmation letter which is easy to rewrite or an unreliable booking system which can take more time. Both of them should be fixed but in different periods.

Inform the Clients About Changes

The clients that took the time to write you a letter are probably waiting for your response.

Generic apology is not enough if the same problem repeats again.

Where it is possible, tell your customers what your company will do to address this issue.

For example, if your clients have complained about complicated returns instructions, you could inform them that the process was simplified.

Don’t promise something that you cannot guarantee. Say what you have already done or how the next step will look like.

It will show the customers that their feedback helps in improving things and not just solving their issues.

This can also motivate other clients to give you some suggestions.

When you are replying to a complaint, use not the general answer but the one related to this specific situation. A client that has waited for several days for the update doesn’t want to see the answer that you understand his delay and will solve his problem.

If the change takes time, say to him what is the next step and when he can expect another update. And fulfill your promise.

It’s not nice to ignore the complaint after the apology.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Change

The improvement itself is not enough. You have to be sure that it worked.

Compare the number of complaints before and after the change.

Some useful metrics can be number of complaints about a particular problem, response times, refund requests, reoccuring complaints and others.

For example, if there were 20 complaints about delayed appointments last month and only 5 this month, it’s a positive result.

But you should check if there was any change in the number of customers.

Also you should make sure that your solution didn’t cause another problem.

Analyze the feedback further and adjust the process where it is needed.

Consider also not just the number of complaints but also complaint rate – the number of complaints per booking, purchase or query. It will make comparisons easier, especially if the customer flow changes over time.

Repeating Customer Complaints Can Become Your Strength

Recurring problems that customers complain about can be annoying but they can also give you some useful information.

Instead of handling each complaint separately, you can look for the patterns, analyze the causes and involve the people that deal with these issues every day.

You don’t need any expensive systems to make it. Just consistently record the feedback, make targeted improvements and measure the result.

When the businesses understand the reason of repeating complaints, they can reduce frustration, optimize their operation and increase the trustfulness of the clients.

Such approach can become an integral part of your routine. You can regularly analyze the feedback, appoint someone responsible for improvements and question the procedures that seem familiar to you.