How to say “No” to your customers

How to say “No” to your customers

клиентите customersEvery customer can name at least one thing, which they would like to be added to your product or service, in order to make them more convenient for themselves or more effective for their personal needs. Of course, not every improvement is revolutionary or useful at all, but the customers should receive kudos for their intentions to propose such improvement.

Often, when customers propose improvements or ideas, at the other end of the dialog is a customer service agent, who must explain that the product can’t be perfect for everyone and the lack of a certain improvement means a presence of a different one. To make the whole process of rejection easier, in the next few paragraphs we will give you some advices, which will help you say “no“ to your customer’s proposed improvements carefully, so your clients would still remain pleased:

  1. Ask for clarification – when the customer proposes an improvement to a recent change or update, asking for clarification works like a charm. A new update or a version of a product are always met with a bit of discontent and there is a moment, when users contact the customer care asking them to bring back the older version of their product, because it was better, more convenient etc. The best way for an agent to manage the situation is to ask the customer what exactly he/she doesn’t like in the new version. This way, the customer will be happy someone listened and cared for his/hers opinion on he matter, and will feel good that the company cares about its clients;
  2. Explain the procedure – often, customers will propose new features and improvements, which won’t be totally effective. The right answer here should contain the whole procedure of approving and integrating an improvement (the short version, of course). The customer will be a lot more pleased to hear something like:
    At the moment we can’t implement the improvement you ask for, but we will send it to our production team. They will review it and fill in the needed documentation. All proposed improvements are collected in a list and receive a deadline, within which they should be created, tested and integrated. Follow our corporate blog or our Facebook fan page, for information on new improvements and features.
    The customers will feel good that their proposals are not ignored and forgotten;
  3. Frame the rejection in positivism – it is absolutely possible to say “No” to someone, without actually saying the word or sounding negative. Try something like “Actually, this is not a bad idea, but at the moment we are not planning on any changes or updates for our products. Thank you for improving our products, we will keep in mind your proposal when creating the next update or redesign!”;
  4. Propose an alternative – after all, you aim is to have a happy customers, not just say something (in case you explain how the client’s proposal will be send to the products team, without actually doing it). So, a good solution is to find an alternative to what the customer needs. You can also follow the example of the company Zappos, which sometimes send their customers to the competitors if they ran out of the product the client wants. It may sound strange, but the generated loyalty and mouth-to-mouth advertising outweighs the short term losses every single time.

Customer care has a lot of secrets and critical moments, but everything that needs long time to be learned can be hired instead – in the form of a professional company, which will help you with your customer service and will expand your business, thanks to the experience and trusted methods. Take a look at our services and give us a call.