Handling Customer Problems Positively in Hospitality

Customers will usually remember the things that go wrong, even if lots of things have been right! It is a well known, fact that 90% of customers will not tell a business if they are unhappy or have a problem but they will tell everyone else! Crucial to delivering GREAT customer service and critical to your business reputation is the way customer problems are handled by front facing team members.

Even better is to work towards ensuring service delivery is of the highest standard at all times. However, based on the fact we are only human, and things do go wrong, being proactive to recognise these situations and taking action before customers point it out to us, will minimise the risk of unhappy customers

This module starts with identifying the difference between a complaint and a problem as it is the complaint that usually gets the full focus of our attention, and smaller problems that are just ‘pointed out’ by customers are often ignored or brushed off but are just as important. Understanding the 4 key reasons that cause problems help to focus our responses and using the principles of the Behaviour Cycle, learners are taken through scenarios to consider the effect of negative and positive responses including identifying ‘red rag to a bull’ moments!

A 7 step procedure is used to take learners through a positive approach to handle complaints and problems and how to adapt the procedure if needed. Using the procedure to refer problems on, an area notoriously fraught with bad communication, ensures customer receive seamless service. Finally, the module considers proactive responses post problems and complaints, to minimise the risk of them reoccurring.

Key benefits:

• Increase confidence to handle customer complaints effectively
• Respond positively to smaller issues that customer point out
• Relate to how customers feel
• Be more aware of potential negative responses that make customers feel worse
• Identify when they need to take control of their responses
• Apply 7 steps when handling problems
• Avoid over apologising
• Listen more careful to what customers are saying
• Ask appropriate questions
• Tell customers what action they are taking
• Check out their level of authority when offering solutions
• Offer alternative solutions if possible
• Make solutions a priority to act on
• Follow up to ensure the customer is ok
• Set up a problem log to aid long term changes that reduce the risk of problems happening again
• Refer problems seamlessly
• Identify problems that may occur in advance and take proactive action to minimise risk