Common Customer Complaints: 8 Examples and Solutions

Having the right helpdesk software allows you to integrate with multiple tools and bridge the gap between your customer service team and your customers. If a brick-and-mortar store will convince consumers to get off their computers and get into the store, it has to have something to offer them that is different. Stores need to genuinely stand out as a better option than online shopping, and a big part of that is the experiential aspect. People will continue to head to your store as long as it surpasses the relatively monotonous experience of online shopping. That is why a significant component of the future of retail is curating an exciting atmosphere.This takes a top-down commitment, starting from business owners. All evidence indicates that focusing on the customer experience during a difficult time can allow some businesses to thrive, even while the industry falters.

This is why many companies work hard to increase customer satisfaction levels. You may also want to consider monitoring any satisfaction ratings you receive on the conversation in your customer service software. Negative feedback may be a sign that there are still issues that need to be addressed (though there will be times that you’ve done everything you can do and the customer will still leave upset). Self-service resources empower your customers to solve their own problems. These consist of knowledge bases, FAQ pages, community forums, and more that they can use to find answers to common questions. A collective knowledge base can also help your support team to find answers to their internal questions.

When customers can’t get hold of a customer support agent especially when they have a complicated issue, they get frustrated. Ecommerce customer service provides your customers with support and assistance when they reach out to you for answers. Ecommerce customer service is critical to your business because of the hugely competitive playing field. But sometimes, things do go wrong on the customer journey, and customers reach out for support. Here’s where businesses can stand out by how well they manage these situations.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool, and we would love to grow our customer base through your recommendation. We appreciate your business and would appreciate your help in spreading the word about our products/services. We’d love to make sure you have everything you need, so don’t hesitate Chat GPT to reach out. Renewing now will ensure you don’t miss out on any of the features and services you’ve come to rely on. If you have a moment, would you be able to fill out a short customer satisfaction survey? Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us, and we appreciate your help.

With the many social channels and forums available on the internet, there are a lot of opportunities and platforms for customers to share feedback on. Then make sure to follow up with them a few days later after you’ve resolved the problem. During this follow-up, apologize again and make sure you’ve taken care of everything they needed. At this point, if the customer is happy, there’s a really good chance that they will be returning to you for your services and that they will tell their friends and family about you and how good your customer service is. After you’ve listened to your customer’s complaint and the individual has had a chance to calm down, it’s your turn to take the initiative and get all the facts.

However, bad experiences can have an equally — or greater — impact on your bottom line. The quality of an online business’s customer service can make all the difference. Your customers want to feel like they have access to real people, not bots and FAQs. Offer more than just automated email responses; don’t let your telephone prompts or website send them down a rabbit hole.

According to a recent survey by HubSpot, 80% of customers say that they consider a company’s experience to be just as important as its products or services. This emphasizes the importance of following up with customers to ensure they feel valued. Customer service has become the CEO’s number one priority for generative AI investment with the promise of helping organizations meet the dual challenges of rising customer demands and operational costs. IBM has been helping enterprises apply trusted AI in this space for more than a decade. And now generative AI has further potential to significantly transform customer and field service with the ability to understand complex inquiries and generate more human-like, conversational responses. IBM Consulting offers end-to-end consulting capabilities in experience design and service, data and AI transformation.

Step 3: Respond to the customer quickly

This soft launch is an exciting opportunity for us to gather feedback from our most loyal customers, and we would greatly appreciate your thoughts and comments on our new product. Your feedback will help us improve our products and services to better meet your needs. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly. We value your business and want to make sure that you are completely satisfied with our services. At [Company], we’re always looking for ways to improve our products and services, and your feedback is incredibly valuable to us. If you have a moment, we’d love to hear your thoughts on your experience.

’ Or it might ask about the helpfulness of the assistant or how satisfied you were with the delivery experience. South Korean auto brand, Hyundai, is the next customer service example on our list. The company is the third largest car manufacturer globally in terms of production volume and sells its vehicles in almost every country in the world. By providing outstanding customer service, you’ll be able to exceed your customers’ expectations and set yourself apart from your competitors. We hope this article will be a valuable resource for you and your business, helping you provide the outstanding customer service that your clients expect and deserve.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our customer service team. By incorporating sophisticated complaint resolution techniques, robust tracking and reporting capabilities, and advanced technology, ComplianceQuest remains at the forefront of complaint management solutions. Our systems are designed to not only meet but exceed customer expectations, ensuring that every complaint is an opportunity for improvement and customer engagement. To further refine our approach and keep pace with the digital era, ComplianceQuest continually integrates advanced technologies such as machine learning and predictive analytics into our complaint management systems. These technologies not only improve the efficiency of complaint handling but also enhance customer experience by providing swift, accurate, and personalized responses.

If there’s anything we can do to make it up to you, please don’t hesitate to ask. Thank you for reaching out to us, and we apologize for the frustration you’re experiencing. Our goal is to provide the best possible service, and we’re sorry if that wasn’t enough in your case. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope to continue serving you better in the future.

Contextual customer routing

In most scenarios, chatbots offer the option of live chat support with the customer service team if the chatbot responses fail to answer the customer’s question. Have you ever entered a retail store, exciting to make a purchase on a product you had discovered, only to find it was out of stock? This can be a frustrating experience for customers and is all too common. A lack of product availability is a common complaint in the retail industry, as is poor product layouts. A poor product layout is when customers enter a store and struggle to navigate due to a confusing or scattered design.Struggling with a lack of availability of key products is a difficult issue to fix. You’re not always going to have a full stock of every product consumers want to purchase.

When a complaint is legitimate, consider offering compensation or making amends to show your commitment to customer satisfaction. Effective communication is the cornerstone of successful complaint resolution. Keep your customers informed throughout the process, updating them on how to address their complaints. A swift and professional customer complaint response demonstrates that you take customer concerns seriously and are committed to resolving the issue. Offering a scannable QR code that links to a virtual contact card with various outreach options can enhance trust.

Not only should you apologize when a customer’s experience is not satisfactory, you also need to explain how you will fix the problem. If the example above ended after those two paragraphs, I would have hardly handled it well and I wouldn’t blame the customer if they felt they were left empty-handed. A proper response to a customer complaint is incomplete without an explanation of what happens next. It is important to keep a track of the type of customer service that is trending and try to adopt the same in your business, if relevant. There are many factors that you must consider when choosing the type of customer service for your business.

While the caller might be satisfied with the outcome for a while, you can either expect a second angry call when they realize you didn’t keep the promise, or they’ll just move to a different company. Instead, tell them what the current situation is and what options you have to help the customer. If at the moment you can’t help, tell them you will call back as soon as you have a solution to their issue. The faster you can find a solution that makes everyone happy (especially your customer), the more satisfied the customer will be and the quicker you will be able to end the call and sigh with relief. However, you might fall into a trap when trying to solve an issue quickly. You should not promise the caller something that you are not sure you will be able to deliver, or give them dates by which their solution will be fixed even though you know it’s unrealistic.

Let them know you’re sorry they were inconvenienced or disappointed or upset, then also thank them for giving you the chance to work it out with them. And for the customers who are still not satisfied, it still leaves an impression on them – but only if you really mean it. If you don’t receive your delivery by the expected arrival date, please let me know by responding to this email. This is on you to listen carefully, draw connections between complaints, and determine if larger action is warranted. If you receive multiple complaints about one employee, one product, or one feature, that probably means there’s a problem with that employee, product, or feature. If that’s the case, thank the customer once again for reaching out and offer follow-up information or instructions if the customer needs to get back in touch with you.

You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. It is also important to ensure that the goals you set for your customer service team are aligned with the larger goals of the company. Great customer service, and therefore a great customer experience, can justify a company’s higher price tag in comparison to its competitors. According to the third edition of Salesforce’s ‘State of the Connected Customer’ report, “66% of customers are willing to pay more for a great experience.” Another crucial aspect of customer support includes helping customers with timely maintenance and upgradation of systems.

Every business has protocol, but it’s sometimes worth bending the rules if that means preventing customer churn. At the very least, reps should pay attention to their tone and body language to ensure they’re displaying a motivated and attentive demeanor. Sometimes this is true, other times customers have expectations that are higher than what your team can provide. Regardless of where the fault lies, when your reps fail to appear invested, your business’s reputation takes the hit.

It was great to have the opportunity to showcase our product and how it can benefit you. Thank you for visiting our website and expressing interest in our product! We are glad to hear that you are interested in learning more about our solution and how it can help you achieve your goals. If you have any detailed feedback or suggestions that you’d like to share with us, it would really help.

A customer leaving a feature request won’t mind at all if it takes you a day to respond, but customers who are in a “pulling my hair out” situation want a resolution yesterday. Asking the right questions helps you get to the root of the complaint, figure out if there’s a way to resolve the issue, and determine if the complaint contains genuinely useful feedback. The only way to find out is to give credence to customer complaints to determine if they contain genuinely useful feedback. Being able to assess and address customer complaints efficiently is key to making this happen.

We have received your request to cancel or modify your order for [Product name], but we regret to inform you that it has already been shipped. We understand that this may be frustrating, and we apologize for any inconvenience. We received your request to cancel your order for [Product name] and issue a refund. We will provide another update as soon as we have more information, but rest assured that your package will be leaving our warehouse in a matter of days. We’re thrilled to let you know that your order is currently in production and will be shipped soon. We apologize for the delay and would like to assure you that we’re doing everything we can to get your order to you as quickly as possible.

A systematic literature review (SLR) is critical as it can serve as a beneficial basis to support and facilitate the execution of future research [37]. In conducting this review of the literature, we attempted to answer the research questions identified below. When your customer has a question or complaint, your goal is to close the loop and resolve the issue. If you don’t respond or can’t provide adequate support, the customer may be reluctant to do business with you again. Rising resolution rates can indicate the effectiveness of your customer support team, making this operational metric worth your time. By demonstrating a commitment to social media customer service, Kellogg’s is safeguarding its brand reputation.

Customers hate repeating their problems to your reps. This happens when they’re either transferred to new reps or dealing with an agent who isn’t paying close attention. When customers have to describe their issue multiple times, it’s both a frustrating and time-consuming experience. If your team works in a call center, Average Time on Hold (ATH) is one of your most important call center metrics. Customers want fast answers and can’t afford to spend their afternoon with a phone glued to their ear. In fact, studies show that after about two minutes, customers are likely to hang up the phone and 34% of those customers won’t call back. That means you can potentially lose a third of your customer base just because you didn’t pick up the phone fast enough.

Strive to Delight Customers

At Zendesk, we offer a comprehensive CX solution that helps businesses of all sizes minimize their customer complaints. Whether you’re utilizing automation to streamline CX operations or data analytics to resolve issues proactively, we provide the features you need to deliver outstanding experiences time after time. Customer complaints are negative pieces of feedback consumers provide about a company’s product, service, or support experience. Customers can privately submit this type of feedback by completing a survey or emailing the support team. They can also publicly submit complaints via social media reviews, community forums, or online review sites.

In most instances, you can diffuse anger and frustration by remaining kind and understanding. You can tell your customer straight away that you appreciate them reaching out about their concerns and that you want to understand exactly how they are feeling. A statement such as this from the get-go lets your customer know that you truly care and that you are ready to listen. When a customer knows that you truly care, you are well on your way to finding a reasonable resolution to the customer complaint. Active listening techniques can, and should, be used with your customers all the time.

Don’t forget to showcase pictures and bios of your support team on your website. Show your customers that your company has real people working to cater to their needs. The best customer service reps who have received training along this philosophy develop the ability to swallow their pride and accept blame or negative customer feedback. If a customer is completely absurd, just be human and let them know that you’re doing your best. Personalized interactions, where service representatives know the customer’s history and preferences, can significantly enhance the customer experience.

Your thoughts and opinions are incredibly valuable, and we’re eager to learn from you. Your feedback is incredibly important to us and will help us improve our product, to better serve you in the future. We’re here to offer our full support in getting you familiar with our product and make sure you have everything you need to be successful. If there’s anything else we can do to help, please get in touch via mail, phone or text.

Customers who are anxiously awaiting a specific product may be calling you or emailing you over and over again to find out when or if you’ll restock the item. Although it doesn’t have the same effect as an actual face-to-face conversation, video conferencing still allows you to convey emotions and non-verbal cues. This is a nice way to show that you really intend to help out and solve the experience problem that led to the complaint. Once you’ve gathered all of the information you need, now is your chance to find a solution that makes everyone happy, especially your customer.

Chatbots are computer programs that employ NLP to simulate conversations with humans [63]. Chatbots are the most widely used NLP application in customer service, according to studies. In the finance sector, chatbots are used to solve complex problems—assists clients in resolving their daily banking-related queries. NLP algorithms that the system is cognizant of are employed to collect and answer customer queries. Customers can ask questions in natural language, and the chatbot can provide the appropriate response [1, 2].

Encourage your team to listen actively so they can identify exactly what will lead to customer satisfaction. If you suspect your team is falling short of expectations for response and issue resolution times, use data analytics to track your team’s performance. Even if your customers aren’t actively complaining, you may see churn if response times are higher than what your customers consider reasonable. Asking meaningful questions using a customer satisfaction survey (CSAT) can give you valuable insights into how well your business operates in the eyes of customers. You can ask binary or open-ended questions or use the Likert system that allows survey respondents to rate their experience with your business. Utilizing a researched bank of questions from SurveyMonkey, you can pinpoint what’s working well and which part of your customer service model needs work.

If you are not constantly on the lookout for opportunities to improve your customer service, your relationships will suffer. When a complaint requires in-depth investigation, a virtual assistant can assist your team by conducting initial research. It can gather relevant information, collate data, and suggest potential solutions based on past cases. This support expedites the resolution process, allowing your team to focus on more complex aspects of complaint handling. Monitor and analyze complaint trends to stay ahead of potential problems and improve your offerings continuously.

It’s why 72% of people say having to repeat their issue to multiple people is poor customer service. Waiting to get a response about an issue is usually a very frustrating experience for customers. And over the years, customers’ expectations of how long a response should take have steadily increased. In fact, one study found that 31% of customers expect a response within an hour.

Of course, you’ll also want to keep an eye on your staffing ratios compared to your customer base. If your audience is growing quickly, you’ll likely need to increase your customer support team in turn, but using self-service can help to reduce ticket volume even as your audience grows. Sprout Social reports that more people are using social media to contact support. Among them, 22% percent expected a response in 2-12 hours, 22% expected a response in 1-2 hours, and 13% in less than one hour. Ensure members of your staff are monitoring social media and responding quickly to customer service requests. Here’s what you need to know about keeping your customers happy, meeting their expectations, and building a growing base of satisfied customers.

Customer support agents must solicit feedback from customers at every stage of interaction with them. According to Microsoft’s 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report, 77% of people view brands more favorably if they reach out to them for feedback and implement it. For companies aiming for customer success, hiring employees that already possess the personality traits and skill-set to align with an overall customer-centric strategy is imperative. For example, great interpersonal skills, the ability to handle a crisis, and high emotional intelligence are some of the many qualities that customer service agents must possess. For most customer service teams, work is highly time-bound, and efficient multitasking is often the only way they can close tasks quickly. Having said that, multitasking can also result in errors and inconsistencies, and therefore, your customer service team must know how to multitask effectively without hampering service quality.

Edge computing can improve real-time data analysis, CRM creates a single record of all customer information, and automation tools make the implementation of decisions and actions faster. However, none of these technologies can help your brand establish a personal connection with customers. A good customer support agent has a thorough understanding and technical know-how of the company’s product and service portfolio.

• Some customers will expect an ongoing chain of updates while others will be more patient.
• Otherwise you run the risk of misleading someone or needlessly dragging out an interaction, both of which can leave a bad taste in a customer’s mouth.
• Bad customer service is any communication or experience where a consumer feels as though they are let down.
• Often featured on an organization’s website, they usually list the questions in a row and allow the user to click on the one that addresses their issue, which will then show the detailed answer below.
• As such, chatbots are becoming an increasingly important customer service channel for both organizations and customers.

Your success is our priority, so we work only with the cream of the crop. Our rigorous selection process ensures that we hire the top 1% of applicants, guaranteeing you access to highly skilled and dedicated virtual assistants who can handle various tasks with customer queries precision and professionalism. Acknowledge their inconvenience and assure them that their concerns are being taken seriously. A sincere apology demonstrates empathy and a commitment to making things right, leaving a lasting impression on your customers.

In today’s era of hyper-digitalization, customers want support interactions that are high on empathy and less automated. One of the most important customer support trends for the future is the efficient collection, analysis, and application of customer data. Responsive or reactive support is support offered when a customer reaches out with a query or complaint. Unlike anticipatory or proactive support, responsive support cannot prevent issues before they crop up. First, negative interactions probably aren’t the norm (if they are, you’re doing something wrong).

According to a wide-ranging report by McKinsey, customer experience leaders experience shallower troughs and quicker recoveries during recessions. So revamping the retail atmosphere has the potential to allow businesses to thrive even during a difficult time for the industry.There are many different ways to curate a more exciting and pleasant retail atmosphere. Many stores, like Nordstrom or Lulu Lemon, have created additional offerings, like a spa or blowout treatment center, to entice customers to enter.

Hiver, a Gmail-based helpdesk solution, allows customer support teams to handle huge volumes of support queries in an efficient, transparent and human way. Without thorough knowledge about your product(s) and company, your customer service team won’t be able to respond to customer queries with clarity. The team must know the purchase process, product features, updates and specifications, company policies, etc. After every customer interaction, support agents must ask for feedback and share it with the relevant departments.

The old saying “kill them with kindness” could not be more true in a situation with a customer complaining. But rather than smile and pretend to care, genuinely let them know you are thankful they are sharing with you their complaint or concern. For example, you can tell them right off the bat that you appreciate them taking the time to talk to you about their concern and you want to make sure you understand exactly what they are saying.

These investments are of no use if the customer problem or query is not properly understood in the first place. If customer issues are not understood properly, then relevant resolution cannot be provided. Companies must realize that business is always a relationship and not a transaction.

Now that you have a good grasp of the issues your customers are facing, it’s time to address the main causes. For example they may say longer call hold times, or report a bug with your product. In these cases, you should have a self-service space where your reps can direct these requests to. These product requests are valuable, but you can’t afford to have reps spending their day listening to customer ideas.

Otherwise you run the risk of misleading someone or needlessly dragging out an interaction, both of which can leave a bad taste in a customer’s mouth. Although all customer complaints are different and should be handled on an individual basis, there are a few best practices to keep in mind no matter what type of complaint comes your way. The biggest bucket of complaints you’ll get are ones tied directly to your products and services. https://chat.openai.com/ These requests could be about things like a product lacking a certain function, feature or service requests, bug reports, and other things in that realm. Company-based complaints are complaints that are about how your business operates or about direct interactions with your company. For example, this type of complaint could be someone reaching out after having a less-than-stellar interaction with someone on your team.

A simple acknowledgment of their complaint and a promise to investigate further can make you seem more trustworthy ad reliable. If you carry a product or offer a service, both you and your employees are expected to be the experts. When customers have questions that can’t be answered or if they can’t find someone to answer their questions, you’ve got a problem. While your customer support team may strive hard to deliver timely, constructive, and personalized customer service, they are bound to face the following challenges at various stages of interacting with customers. A customer service role is rife with several challenges, and to be able to deal with each one of them well requires a great degree of patience.

You can say things like, “I understand this must be very frustrating for you,” or, “If I understand you correctly…” then follow up with the paraphrased rendition of the complaint. Sometimes people indeed complain just because they are having a bad day, but keep in mind that we all have bad days and you never know what is going on in that person’s life. Ecommerce businesses stand to lose not only existing customers but also potential ones. Doyoueven has a website that offers a helpful section that makes it easy for customers to find a quick answer. Being unable to solve customers’ issues promptly can be reason enough for them to switch to your competitors. First Contact Resolution is the percentage of support requests that are resolved in a single interaction with a customer.

You do no need to reinvent the wheel for every primary and common question. Build scalable templates so you can respond to these inquiries with ease and professionalism. Proper training can be a significant cost center for companies, particularly when call center employees have a high turnover rate. According to Harvard Business Review, call center turnover can be as high as 45% and double or more than the rate in other positions in a company.

NLP transforms unusable unstructured textual data into usable computer language. To accomplish this, NLP employs algorithms to identify and retrieve natural language rules. The computer receives the text data, decrypt it using algorithms, and then extracts the key information.

The right email management software can be one of the easiest ways to organize, prioritize, and delegate customer support interactions in one place. Agents must cultivate a professional customer service voice to diffuse situations with measured responses. Even though it’s challenging to stay calm and collected when dealing with an angry customer, support agents must always be empathetic, helpful, and knowledgeable—all while displaying proper call center etiquette. Customers expect that the product they saw advertised on your website aligns with what they receive. According to Statista, 77 percent of consumers feel that a “great product or service” is crucial for brand loyalty.

Studies show that 67% of customer churn is avoided if the service request is fulfilled during the first interaction. While that doesn’t mean you should hold customers on the phone, it does mean that they should be pursuing first call resolutions. In some cases, the product isn’t broken, rather, the customer doesn’t understand how to use it. Other times, customers aren’t a good fit for your product or service, but they blame your company for failing to fulfill their needs.

Chronicling complaints and following up with customers can help you improve your operations and deliver a better CX. Support agents are often the first line of defense when dealing with dissatisfied customers or consumer complaints. When your agents don’t have the right customer service skills for the job, it can leave a bad impression on buyers. In this article, we’ll detail common types of complaints and how to handle them to increase customer loyalty and improve the customer experience (CX). Some modern teams shy away from traditional live support options like phone support, but many help desks offer live chat solutions, which aren’t as resource intensive. Research found that millennials actually prefer chat support over any other form of support, so it could be a very worthwhile investment.

Support your staff with integrated CX software that houses all customer information in one location. This allows agents to find the relevant details about each customer, including their current and past concerns, contact information, and purchase history. Per our CX Trends Report, 4 in 10 support agents agree that consumers become angry when they cannot complete tasks on their own. Self-service resources—such as FAQ pages, informative articles, and community forums—can help consumers solve problems independently. Customers appreciate when they can troubleshoot problems without the need to speak to a support agent. Even in the most expertly run organization, there will always be a lapse in quality control, shipping, or simply an off day that leads a customer to complain.

A Net Promoter Score (NPS) is another way to learn about the customer experience in a qualitative way that will make the analysis process more efficient. The NPS can measure a customer’s opinions, attitude, and overall perception of your business in contrast to a binary question requiring a yes or no answer. For example, you can ask customers how they felt about the purchase experience by gauging it with an NPS.

Talking about the weather is another way to establish common ground and remind the person on the other line of communication that your conversation doesn’t need to be purely transactional. Apply these ten essential tips to handle complaints effectively, from active listening to prompt resolutions. Transform dissatisfied customers into loyal advocates, building a strong brand reputation.