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How you deal with detractors can make or break your business.
Handle them poorly, and you’ll likely see your brand reputation and sales take a nosedive. Treat them right, and you just might turn them into avid fans eager to promote your products to their social circle.
Although detractors are inevitable in every business, with the right strategies, you can change them into allies and even foster customer loyalty. That’s what you’ll learn in this guide.
Detractors are customers who are unsatisfied and unhappy with your products and services. Due to their bad experience with your brand, they are unlikely to do business with you again and might even discourage other people from doing so.
You can identify detractors using the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a standard customer experience metric that lets you measure your customers’ willingness to recommend your business to family and friends.
Customers are classified into three categories based on their responses: Promoter, Passive, or Detractor.
Every company has detractors. However, if your team is equipped with the best practices for dealing with angry customers, the probability of turning your detractors into brand ambassadors significantly increases.
Below are tried-and-tested tips you can follow to win them over.
Show your detractors you care about them by following up on their feedback. Sometimes this is all it takes to prompt a change of heart from your previously angry customers. Reach out to them, acknowledge their negative experience, and address your customers’ needs to the best of your capability.
Below are useful tips when following up with your detractors.
Whether you’re creating automated response workflows or following up with detractors on the phone, make sure you address their concerns and assure them you’re there to help them resolve their issues.
According to a 2018 HubSpot survey, 90% of customers rate instant responses as a critical aspect of customer service. This highlights why you need to put a premium on quick response times when dealing with customers, especially your detractors.
If you don’t respond to their issues immediately, things can escalate very quickly. In less than five minutes, they can post about their frustrations with your brand on their social media accounts, which could then go viral. Things will continue to spiral from there.
Prevent such a catastrophe by providing quick response times. While some issues can be complex and take more time to resolve, the least you can do is update customers that you’re working relentlessly on fixing their problems. It’s a great way to demonstrate your company’s genuine concern about consumer satisfaction.
Consider these tips to improve your customer service response times.
Integrate NPS scores into your customer relationship management (CRM) system so your agents are made aware of current or previous customer issues before going into a call or live chat. This allows your customer service reps to take appropriate actions promptly to de-escalate your customers’ frustrations.
For example, if customers scoring three on the NPS call an airline to complain about a recent flight, offering them a free upgrade on their next flight can help prevent them from switching to a different carrier. It’s one way of improving their brand experience and increasing their satisfaction, thereby increasing the chances of turning them into promoters.
While there are many ways to handle detractors, we’ve rounded up three of the best methods to deal with them effectively.
Ask for feedback from your detractors and then act on their issues to show your company cares. Respond to negative reviews by asking your detractors about their issues. This helps you understand their situation better and allows you to develop the best possible solution to their frustrations.
Use Zendesk customer feedback software and customize the tool’s templates to create feedback forms easily.
A successful detractor interaction doesn’t end with resolving the issues at hand. There’s a difference between your detractors feeling OK because their issues are addressed and feeling enthusiastic because of the interaction they had with your brand.
Your goal is the latter.
When you go above and beyond when solving your detractors’ concerns, you make them feel special and valued. This makes them want to give your brand another chance and even spread the word about their positive experience with your business.
Here are a few tips to help you go above and beyond and turn your detractors into promoters.
Additionally, assess each detractor’s situation and determine if it’s part of a larger recurring issue. If you see a trend with a specific type of problem, it might be time to rethink and refine certain products, processes, and other aspects of your business.
Ensure your customer service agents know the history of your customers’ issues. That way, they can avoid adding fuel to the fire by asking already angry customers to repeat their frustrations. Having all this information ready helps your agents determine the best approach to dealing with detractors.
While it can be challenging to handle angry customers, staying professional, showing empathy, and focusing on finding solutions can help turn your detractors into promoters.
There are countless detraction examples you can study to turn your angry customers into promoters. However, if you follow the tips shared in this guide, you’re bound to get quick and long-term wins out of your initiatives to win over your detractors.
Leverage the right strategies to provide excellent customer support to both promoters and detractors. As long as you treat them right, your customer retention rate and your brand reputation will improve, along with your company’s bottom line.
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