What’s stopping your customers from complaining?

If a Philippine call center receives few customer complaints, it s usually taken as a sign of healthy business. Nothing could reflect excellent service and superb products than zero complaints about your brand, right?

Wrong. When instances of complaint calls go down, there s a high chance that your service quality and customer loyalty are also slipping. When this happens, what follows are profits going down the drain.

However, the number of angry calls going through the roof doesn t conversely mean that you win as a brand. What you should really count is the number of complaints you solve for you to determine if you re acing customer service. So complaints should actually be welcomed, as they give you an insight on areas of business that need improvement and how they can be improved.

But how can you work your way into a more ideal brand if the very people who could truly say what you should work on won t even bother telling you what s wrong?

Yes, your current complaint count is just the tip of the iceberg. That s not even 25% of the total customers who are having issues with your brand, according to Salesforce. Then where do the 75% turn to? No, they don t keep the problem to themselves, but instead of reporting, they tell an average of three people about their unpleasant dealing with you. This is obviously bad for your brand, so you should be able to encourage people to reach out to you and voice out their concerns, and fix an issue before it becomes a public, overblown, and become slanderous.

But first, you should know what s holding back complainants from making the call.

1. Complicated contacting channels

Unless customers need a solution at this very moment, they won t likely contact you to complain because it s such a hassle. They d rather not go through confusing menus or listen to long voice prompts because it would only add to the problem at hand. So, make it easy for them to reach you by offering convenient communication channels like social media, live chat, and email aside from your phone lines.

2. Low expectations

The last thing a disappointed customer wants is another disappointment, especially one that comes from your frontline people. It s discouraging to call customer support if you know that the representatives wouldn’t be able to do anything to help you at all. Customers who have low expectations are likely the ones who have witnessed your people s inability to fix problems. Prove them your competence by making sure that your customer service agents are not just well-versed about product specifications and policies, but also courteous at all times.

3. Expensive solutions

If an inconvenience was caused by your end, it would, of course, be unfair to make the inconvenienced customer shoulder the expenses. You should be able to appease for a mistake by going beyond the expected level of service and giving a token of apology. This may come in the form of discounts, free items, or even in-store credits.

4. Time-consuming process

Your contacting channels should be as responsive as it is usable. Like the reason in point #1, customers would rather not report an issue if doing so would just consume too much of their time. As you make your platforms less complicated to use, you should make your responses and processes fast as well—always make sure that there s someone ready to answer questions, that all equipment is functioning well, and that there are no waiting periods as much as possible.