YC LOCO's Tips On How To Handle Complaints Effectively

I've been in a mentoring role for about 4.5 years, also handled complex disputes/managerial escalations for about 3 years, and in a supervisory role for 6 months now.
I have learnt how to solve and/or improve the escalations (Complaint calls from customers) throughout the years. Hence, I'm here to share my tactics/experiences I had so far, on how to make an escalation call a better experience for your customers :


1. Sound calm. Customers are already frantic/agitated during a complaint call, and if they ever detect your slighest bit of impatience/annoyance, you're just digging your own grave.

2. Do NOT raise your voice. If you do, you're not solving the problem. You're only making it worse. If a customer is shouting at you, do NOT go to the same level as him/her, you must still sound polite and convincing nevertheless. Eventually, the customer will calm down hearing your calm tone.

3. Let the customer rant. Let him/her vent out all of their frustrations. Then only you can address his/her issues one by one. From there, you can identify the root cause that has made the customer unhappy.

4. Be aware of your choice of words. Do not use sentences that start with "I cannot", "I won't", "I don't want". If the customer's request is really unreasonable, then use sentences like "I'm afraid that we are unable to accede to your request..." Or "After much consideration from the management, your appeal was unsuccessful..."

5. Do NOT give the wrong information. This is already a complaint call, you wouldn't want another complaint call, would you? :p

6. Do NOT interrupt. Probably one of the worst things to do while facing a furious customer. In my personal experience as a customer, I did encounter situations whereby some Supervisors/Managers interrupted me while I was talking to them. That has made me even more angry & complained more.

7. Active listening. Your customer would rather talk to a tree than to encounter someone who's not listening to him. Believe me, it's really bad to ask a customer to keep repeating the story. I have blasted many officers who did this to me. Open up your ears and listen with an open heart.
Always remember that customers expect you to solve his/her problems once and for all, and not ding dong here ding dong there.

8. Do NOT sound sleepy. Oh gosh, I have a colleague who sounds very sleepy/sad while talking to customers. One customer actually told him to sound more cheerful! Do not let customers highlight your weak points. Improve yourself before you even start talking with any customers.

9. Convince them that you are helping them in their best interests. Whenever a customer sounds that he/she has given up on us, I would convince them that I'm really here to help them. You must sound genuine and helpful as well.

10. Do not end the call yet when customer is still unhappy. By doing all of the above, you should be able to make customers happy before the end of the call. Always think of the best solutions, everything has a solution, and let customers know about their options.


Thanks for reading and I hope that this would somehow help you :)