The Retail Doctor Blog

Handling A Difficult Customer's Complaint

Written by Bob Phibbs | December 08, 2009

From the Retail Doc's Facebook page:

Q "I am in automotive repair and very good at my work. I had a customer come in for a convertible top replacement. To make a very long story short- They expected other work to be done for free. I explained to them what the extra work entailed, and they went ballistic because I would not adjust the door glass and whatever parts they needed for free. Now they are bad-mouthing me everywhere on reviews and the BBB. Not on the work performed but on my bad "customer service."

Even though I kept my cool and calm over the whole 2 hours with them, I now have to answer to the BBB why I am a nasty, rude, foul-mouth person and my business should be shut down. They even went as far as to say that I would bust their 1973 Corvette up! Which I never in 1,000 years would think of. I have been in business for 21 years - this is the first time I have encountered this kind of customer.

A Wow, that's tough. Since I wasn't there, knowing what to do is hard. My short answer: nothing. There are jerks in the world. Accept you did what you thought best. Perhaps there is something you could change - make a note of it- and move on.

That said if you want to go further, do a Google search for your name or the name of your business and find any reviews they might have posted. For starters, look at yahoo.com, yelp.com, boorah.com, and kudzu.com.

Answer any accusations in a fact-based manner. I've seen this on TripAdvisor.com with a hotel that received a terrible review stating all kinds of things. The owner responded to their points and apologized but also corrected them by saying the property "bait and switched."

There are millions of people just itching to get their hurt out into the world and vent that it is your fault. If it is, accept responsibility for what is yours, but don't let them get away with trash talk.

Read my post on 6 steps to handling customer complaints here.