When you get a customer complaint, the problem isn’t what the customer is complaining about, the problem is you have a complaint. When you understand this, you’d never argue with the customer as to whether they were right or wrong – you just fix it, do it, refund it, etc. Arguing will not make the complaint (the problem) go away.
So remember, when a customer complains, the real problem is that YOU have a complaint. Make the customer happy, and make the real problem go away.
I’m not sure why, but I seem to have intuitively understood this from early on. It minimizes the emotional sting of a complaint- particularly a mean spirited online complaint, and allows you to simply work the problem and then coach your subordinates who tend to take it more personally. “How could we have prevented this?” “Granted, the customer was over the top and unfair in our view, but what part DID WE play in them getting this escalated, and what must we do differently going forward so that this doesn’t happen again?”
Larry do you give the customer what ever they want regardless of how reasonable it is?
The absolute raw truth in print.
There is no such thing (especially in today’s “e” world) as right or wrong when it comes to a complaint. You either live with the complaint or you do whatever it takes to get rid of it. Your side of the story is officially irrelevant (when it comes to resolving a complaint) now and forever!