How to turn a complaint into a positive…

February 2, 2015

How do you deal with complaints from your customers?

It's human nature to react to a complaint by gritting your teeth and reluctantly admitting that perhaps you were wrong.

However if you handle them correctly, complaints are an opportunity not a threat.

Why's that?

Well, whilst customers don't forget a badly handled complaint they are even more likely to remember a complaint that you dealt with effectively.

So a complaint can become an opportunity to overwhelm a dissatisfied customer with your response so that they become your best customer and source of referrals.

Just as an example, last year we used Green Flag for our car breakdown cover when we went on holiday to France.

Our travel documents didn't arrive before we left and so we only looked at them when we were back home.

And imagine our shock when we read that Green Flag had included cover from the date we returned not the date we left!

We immediately contacted Green Flag to complain that we'd had no breakdown cover for our holiday.

They took great pains to reassure us that we would have been covered as it was their mistake.

And they gave us a full refund, no questions asked.

However they didn't stop there.

A few days later a cheque for £25 arrived in the post! Together with an apology for all the inconvenience.

Because of this we will continue to use them for our holiday breakdown cover and mention their excellent customer service to all our friends, clients and contacts.

So Green Flag understood precisely how to turn a complaint into customer loyalty...

And this is precisely the reason why we offer our clients a 90 day risk free trial and a 100% absolute delight first year guarantee - more about that here.

About the author

Richard Baldwyn ATT CTA

Richard is Co-Founder of The Friendly Accountants and has more than 30 years' experience, in tax, including 3 years spent inside HMRC before moving into private practice. He advises individuals and owner-managed businesses on a wide range of UK tax issues, including the tax challenges created by digital platforms and online business models.

Richard has specialised in UK crypto taxation since 2016 and was one of the first UK tax advisers to write publicly about the taxation of cryptoassets. His work includes advising individuals, investors, founders and owner-managed businesses on complex crypto transactions, HMRC disclosures and enquiries, DeFi, NFTs and the tax issues facing businesses operating with digital assets.

He also has first-hand experience of cryptoassets and Web3 projects, combining practical knowledge of how crypto is used with wider UK tax experience.

He particularly enjoys making complex tax transactions easier to understand and helping clients apply tax rules to transactions and technologies that do not always fit neatly within traditional tax categories. More about Richard and the TFA team

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