In the customer's shoes
Featured in the Complaint handling for positive outcomes training manual
By Nina Lockwood
Category: Customer Service
Credit price: 2 download credits (Single user)
Over recent years, our expectations as customers have steadily risen to an all-time high. Unfortunately, the service we actually receive is rarely up to the standards we expect and therefore, as a customer, we might feel that we have cause to complain. Complaints offer an opportunity to improve service and impress customers, and should not be seen as a threat. In fact, the actual complaint is often the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and the customer is providing an avenue for us to explore their needs at a deeper level. However, making a complaint is seldom a pleasant experience, and many people are left with an even greater feeling of frustration because of the way their complaint was handled. It is important that front-line staff understand how customers feel when they complain — and how these feelings are influenced, positively or negatively, by the person handling the complaint. This training activity encourages participants to identify the level of service they expect to receive themselves when making a complaint and enables them to look for ways to apply this information to their own service delivery behaviours. What does it look like, feel like and sound like?
You open the training activity by explaining that complaints offer an opportunity to improve service and impress customers, and should not be seen as a threat. You start by putting the participants into the customer’s shoes, and encouraging them to explore the emotions and behaviours they experience as customers of other organizations. Next, you invite the participants to examine their feelings towards customer complaints. This part of the training activity brings out the main benefits of effective complaint handling and details some key statistics. You conclude the training activity by asking the participants to consider the feelings the customer experiences when making a complaint, and use case-study scenarios to encourage the participants to try to view customer complaints as a means of improving customer satisfaction.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to help participants look at complaints from both sides, focusing on the impact of their own personal attitudes and behaviour on customer loyalty to the organisation, and ultimately on the bottom line profit.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 6 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:25:00 |
| No of Pages: | 30 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: Introduction cards with colour clues: one per participant.
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers with all members of staff, particularly those with customer-facing responsibilities. It enables experienced members of staff to review their personal performance and share their experience, and encourages more recently appointed staff to consider the impact their performance can have on the customer.
Download the training activity, In the customer's shoes as featured in the Fenman training manual; Complaint handling for positive outcomes