No one wants to hear bad news. Especially if it’s a customer complaint

But what if you could stop customer complaints before they happen? No, we’re not suggesting you break out the Ouija board just yet.

All it actually takes is a little empathy and foresight.

We’ve put together a collection of the most common sources of customer complaints (and how to fix them) to help you create a better experience for your customers before they have the chance to get frustrated.

Complaints can be a useful tool for discovering where your business needs to improve, but it’s much better to be able to get that insight without upsetting a customer at the same time.

Let’s get into it.

Why Do Customers Complain?

Customers complain when they feel frustrated or not satisfied with your product and services.

That doesn’t mean that customers only complain when they can’t do something. Frustration happens any time the results of an action don’t match the expectation - when you do something and it doesn’t turn out how you thought it would.

These frustrating moments can occur at any point in your customer’s experience, whether customer is purchasing any product or service. For instance, maybe their order never arrives or your services are a complete mess. Potentially frustrating scenarios are everywhere.

You need to anticipate and eliminate these opportunities for frustration, so that your customers can discover, purchase, and enjoy your products and services without hitting any roadblocks (and without sending you a complaint about their less-than-stellar experience).

The Most Common Sources of Frustration for Customers

While complaints can take many forms, there are a few key things that can leave customers dissatisfied if they aren’t handled properly. If you can master these critical issues, your business will start getting less complaints and more happy customers instead.

Keeping your customers happy is all about managing expectations. Most customer complaints are caused by a disconnect between expectation and reality, so you need be able to more accurately align your customers’ expectations with likely outcomes.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common causes of complaints and how your business can get on top of them before they turn your customers away.

Product and Services Issues

“Where’s my order?”

“Your services are very poor!”

If you’ve gotten that question before, then you definitely understand the importance of being able to deliver your products safely and on time and to provide high quality of services to the customers.

Your customers put a lot of trust in you to get them your product or services and if they feel uncertain about when their package or service is going to show up (or if it’s going to show up at all), the complaints will start rolling in.

To keep your customers in the loop, offer order tracking and notify them about services whenever possible. If your customers can keep an eye on the progress of the product and services in real time, they’ll have a more clear understanding of when their order should arrive and you’ll be able to reduce the potential for complaints based on shipping delays or uncertainty.

Inaccurate Product or services, Photos and Descriptions

“It’s not described properly.”

Try to see things from your customers’ perspectives: What would you want to know before purchasing the product or services?

There’s nothing worse than placing an order, waiting 5-7 business days for it to show up, and then realizing it doesn’t fit properly.

When product and service doesn’t look, feel, or fit the way your customers imagined that they would, it’s easy to understand their disappointment.

Writing product and services descriptions with important details is a great way to accurately describe your product and services and give your customers a reasonable idea of what they should expect when placing an order.

Don’t be afraid to be as transparent as possible. For instance, if a product runs small or large, be up front about it. Your customers will appreciate it and your honesty will help build trust with your audience.

Inaccurate product and services photography can also be a source of frustration for your customers. Ordering a product and realizing that the texture or colour is completely different once you take it out of the box is a terrible feeling and can lead to complaints, returns, and customers that never come back.

To help your customers decide if your products are right for them, it’s also important to enable reviews and integrate social media feeds into your product pages.

Not only will this approach give hesitant customers the extra push they need to place an order, but it will also give them an inside look at what real people think about your products and service. Product reviews and photos will set your customer’s’ expectations at a realistic level and make sure that they’re satisfied with their orders.

Website Responsiveness and Usability

“Your website sucks on mobile.”

Try to imagine your website as a real life storefront: Can your customers easily find you? Is your store a complete mess? Is it difficult for your customers to actually purchase your products?

Keeping your website clean, organized, and easy to navigate is just as important as having a neat and tidy brick-and-mortar shop.

To avoid annoying your customers, you need to put a mobile responsive website at the heart of your website strategy. Nearly ⅓ of smartphone users will immediately navigate away from a website if it takes too long to load or they can’t find what they’re looking for right away.

That’s huge, especially since more than half of all Google searches are now happening on smartphones and tablets rather than computer and laptops. However, if you get a website with CodeCarrot, you’ll be good to go since every template is already fully mobile responsive.

Load times in particular take a toll on your customers’ patience. According to Google, 40% of customers will abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Wondering how your website stacks up? Try running it through Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

If your website has a physical location, you should also think about how easy it is for your customers to find your contact details.

When customers visit a brick-and-mortar store’s website, they’re looking for address and location information above anything else. And half the time, those local searches actually result in customers showing up to the business’ physical shop within 24 hours.

Here’s a quick checklist with the details that every business needs to have on their “Contact Us” page to avoid frustrating customers who are trying to get in touch:

1. Hours of operation
2. Address and location for brick-and-mortar stores
3. Phone number
4. Email address
5. Social media links

3 - Templates for Dealing with Customer Complaints

Despite your best efforts, you may still get customer complaints from time to time.

It’s important to not let these complaints eat away at you. Instead, see them as a chance to make your product and services better. Try to look past the negative feedback and uncover the lesson at the core of the complaint.

They aren’t trying to hurt you. They aren’t out to get you. They’re frustrated and they need help.

As a business owner, it might not be your fault, but it is your responsibility. You need to deal with these complaints and find a solution that works.

It isn’t always easy to come up with the right words, especially if you’re dealing with a particularly emotionally-charged message. But with the right templates, writing a response can be a lot less stressful.

It’s crucial that you don’t just copy and paste these templates verbatim. Customers can spot a canned response from a mile away. Instead, use them as a guide for crafting a helpful and unique email.

Here are three basic email templates that you can use as a jump-off point for responding to complaints.

Here are three basic email templates that you can use as a jump-off point for responding to complaints.

Create a Better Shopping Experience for Your Customers

Customer complaints aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but a satisfied customer is much better than an upset one.

Now that you understand why your customers complain, it’s time to get out there and give them the best shopping experience possible. After all, your business is here to serve your customers, so their thoughts and opinions need to be at the core of your strategy.

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