Friday 09 July 2021
Enhance customer relations through your management of customer dissatisfaction
Let's face it, no company today is perfect. It doesn't take long to make a mistake: managing orders, multiplying stocks, training new employees. Add to this a potential dependence on service providers whose quality of work we don't always control (delivery, logistics, production, management of social networks, etc.), and the risks are there for all to see.
So here you are, faced with the situation of a customer dissatisfied with your service, who is unhappy and could seriously damage your reputation. How do you react? What should you do about it?
That's what we're going to explain in this article.
The risks of customer dissatisfaction
The first point to consider is how important customer dissatisfaction with the quality of your products or service can be. According to a 2017 Accenture study, 44% of French people have switched to a competitor as a result of dissatisfaction the equivalent of 102 billion euros in losses for those companies with a disappointing experience.
Aside from the loss of sales, the greatest risk of customer dissatisfaction is to your reputation. Some customers will feel nothing but disappointment and vexation; they'll contact customer service, and this unfortunate experience will remain "private".
But other customers will start talking about it around them, tarnishing your brand image. And while there are no recent studies to draw on, we do know that consumers are much more likely to communicate about a disappointing experience than a satisfactory one. This is a real risk when it comes to customer dissatisfaction, because the opinions of peers and friends and family are among the recommendations we take most into account when making purchasing decisions.
Where the risk of customer dissatisfaction is greatest is in the case of bad buzz. This is when, in spite of yourself, negative information about your brand creates a huge buzz and brings with it the damage that goes with it: a boycott of the brand, a drop in sales, a plummeting stock market price, as the example of United Airlines showed.
Capitalize on customer dissatisfaction
You can't just leave a dissatisfied customer in a corner and hope to hell they don't tell anyone about it. You can take advantage of customer dissatisfaction, and even turn it around completely.
First and foremost, remember that even if this customer criticizes your company, its services or its staff, there's nothing personal in his approach. He was expecting a service, but the one he received didn't live up to his expectations, and you need to understand why.
If you've opted for customer satisfaction measurement and collected customer feedback via your customer satisfaction survey, you're one step ahead. You're the one who went to him, and he gives you the material to repair your mistake.
You have access to notes and comments on themes you have defined, which will help you to better understand which part of your service has not fulfilled the tacit contract with the customer.
Identifying the subject of dissatisfaction, finding the most appropriate response to provide to the customer and transmitting it via the most suitable channel: this is how you prove that you've heard and taken into account their bad experience with your brand.
Customers feel recognized and listened to, and their experience is totally transformed. This is how a detractor can become a promoter of your brand. Congratulations: you've made the most of customer dissatisfaction!
The Dyson example
Take the example of a friend who had just invested in his first Dyson vacuum cleaner. Within the first 15 days of use, a part broke and he could no longer use it. This is clearly a reason for dissatisfaction.
But when he told me this story, he mostly said "I sent them an email with a photo and, you know what? They sent me back a brand new vacuum cleaner!"
Complaints made easy, listening and responsiveness: that's how Dyson handles customer dissatisfaction. My friend became a promoter of the brand when he experienced a hardware failure.
How do you manage customer dissatisfaction?
Now that you've understood the risks and benefits of managing customer dissatisfaction, you're probably wondering how to implement this approach in your company.
How to proceed?
What strategy should you adopt?
How do you respond to customer dissatisfaction?
We've put together a webinar featuring all our advice on managing customer dissatisfaction. You can access the replay by filling in the form below.
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If you have more specific questions and would like to discuss them with us, please don' t hesitate to contact us.
