Lasting customer relationships are built on trust. It’s trust that prevents people from considering alternatives in the industry and continuing their journey with their preferred brands.
However, no matter how careful you are to keep that trust intact, setbacks down the road are inevitable. Your customers may not always be satisfied with what you offer and complain about their experience.
Your customers met your expectations when they agreed to pay the amount you asked for your products or services. In return, they want you to do the same. They want your solutions to meet their expectations.
Failing to do so puts the trust you’ve worked so hard to foster at stake. So, it’s best that you come up with efficient ways to win the hearts of your customers after their unpleasant experiences.
Acquiring new customers will cost you 5 times more than retaining your current customer base.
Therefore, it’s best to regain your customers’ trust after they’ve complained about your offerings.
Why Do Customers Complain?
Before we dive into the details and explore how you can win the trust of your customers back, it’s best to learn why customers complain and what causes them to lose trust in you.
There are three core driving factors that may cause your customers to reach out to you and complain about your offerings.
-
Unmet expectations
Customers may reach out to you with complaints if you fail to meet their expectations. So, it’s best that you set clear expectations from the get-go.
It’s very important that you and your customers are on the same page when it comes to the trade. They should know exactly what they will get in exchange for the amount they pay you.
It’s reported that 66% of customers expect businesses to understand their needs and offer experiences accordingly.
Setting clear expectations about your products or services minimizes the likelihood of your customers being dissatisfied and losing their trust in you.
-
Overpromises
Customers are likely to complain about their experience when you purposely mislead them by promising something that you cannot deliver.
Therefore, it’s essential that you are transparent when promoting your products or services and showcasing their capabilities.
Around 88% of customers say that it’s authenticity that makes them prefer one brand over other alternatives.
False advertising does more harm than good. Not only does it affect retention, but it also severely damages your brand’s reputation through negative word of mouth.
It’s reported that more than four negative reviews about your brand may cause your sales to drop by 70%. Therefore, it’s best to ensure that you deliver the experience you promised your customers.
-
Poor customer service
You’d be the one your customers reach out to when they encounter issues with your products or services.
No one understands the capabilities and limitations of the solutions you offer better than yourself. So your customers will ask you to help them leverage the solutions you offer to the fullest.
This is where your customer service comes into play and ensures that your customers have a seamless experience.
Around 80% of customers say that they will take their business elsewhere after a poor customer service experience. So, it’s important that you cater to your customers’ queries and sincerely help them at every stage of their journey.
7 Ways to Recover Your Customer's Trust
- Listen to your customers
- Show empathy
- Admit your mistakes
- Value customer feedback
- Communicate Transparently
- Share information
- Learn from your mistakes
Now, let’s see how you can recover your customers’ trust after they’ve complained about the solutions you offer.
1. Listen to your customers
If you wish to regain the trust of your customers, start by listening to what they have to say.
A common mistake many customer service representatives make is interrupting customers in the middle of a conversation.
However, it’s not because they have bad intentions. They just try to solve the problem and make things right with the customers as soon as possible. This often backfires and can likely agitate your customers even more.
So, the best approach here would be to just let your customers finish what they have to say. Patience goes a long way here and makes it possible for you to handle the situation in an overall better way.
2. Show empathy
Showing empathy to your customers is a nice gesture that can help you win their hearts after they’ve complained.
When your customers ask for your help, they won’t always do it nicely. Most of the time, they’d be furious when they contacted you. And when that happens, try to understand where they are coming from.
Try to look at things from their perspective and be empathetic toward them.
Keeping your cool amidst heated arguments with your customers will help you cater to their complaints in a better way and ensure customer loyalty.
Being empathetic towards your customers helps you turn things around and earn a second chance at making things right.
3. Admit your mistakes
When you’ve failed to provide your customers with an experience that meets their expectations, it’s best to admit your mistakes.
Taking responsibility and owning the situation will set you on the right path and help you come up with optimal solutions.
Try not to let your defense mechanism get the best of you. Refusing to take the blame will only make things worse for you.
So, apologize for the inconvenience caused and assure your customers that you will fix the problem as soon as possible.
This makes it easier for your customers to accept your apology and makes it possible for you to regain the trust of a dissatisfied customer.
4. Value customer feedback
When your customers reach out to you with their complaints, thank them for identifying the issues with your service.
In a way, your customers are helping you improve the solutions you offer and be better than you were before. So, show some gratitude for the findings they’ve shared with you.
They could have simply discontinued your service and switched to a better alternative without even telling you anything. Instead, they chose to call you out and ask you to fix the problem.
This shows that they haven’t completely lost faith in you and are willing to continue their journey with your brand. So never throw their feedback under the rug. Instead, leverage it to improve your products or services.
Your customers have had first-hand experience with the solutions you offer. So, they are a genuine and unbiased source of meaningful insights for you.
Plus, valuing customers’ feedback shows them that you care and makes it easier for them to trust you again.
5. Communicate transparently
Never try to hide anything from your customers when they reach out to you with their complaints.
Be transparent when communicating with your customers and avoid providing them with false details about the situation.
Transparency fosters trust. So, coming out clean with your customers paves the way for you to acknowledge high retention.
6. Share information
Don’t just tell your customers that you will fix the problems. Show them how it will be done. Sharing information about your processes and planned improvements gives you a chance to win your customers back.
Taking your customers behind the scenes or providing valuable insights shows that you consider them a part of the family rather than just constituents of the sales funnel.
And that plays a vital role in retaining your customers, even after they’ve had unpleasant experiences with you.
7. Learn from your mistakes
When it comes to customer retention and winning their trust, there’s no room for repeating the same mistakes.
You’ve already messed up once. Doing it the second time may cause you to lose your customers for good. So, it’s best to determine the source of the problems and come up with viable strategies to fix them for good.
Your customers may not switch to your competitors immediately after the first rough encounter. However, by repeating the same mistakes over and over and not improving the experience that you offer, you’d be giving them a compelling reason to do so.
Final Words
Not sure how to turn things around and regain your customers’ trust after you’ve lost it?
Now you know. The recommendations provided in this article may help you make things right with your customers and significantly improve retention.
So, if you’ve been struggling to handle your customers’ complaints, try our recommendations and see if they work for you.
