3 Unexpected Benefits of Addressing Consumer Complaints
We love getting feedback from our customers. Frequently, the comments we receive don’t just help us improve our product, but give us a sense of some the larger issues and trends facing the industries we serve. For instance, here’s one recent customer quote that really stuck out to me:
“Consumer complaints can take a long time. We’ve improved our numbers from last year, and our complaints process is where I’m seeing many changes. Because, when we get certain complaints in a row, we can say, ‘If we’re getting a few of these, then something is happening. How do we address it?’ That’s the whole point of having that complaint regulation process.”
Like Compli, the companies who use our solution also value feedback from their own customers. Under increased pressure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—as well as capital providers—to address and learn from consumer complaints, lenders and financial services companies are learning to recognize the importance of this information from a compliance standpoint.
But there’s so much more to complaints than the regulatory red flags they raise.
Complaints Keep Your Employees Responsible
Virtually no founder establishes an organizations with the intention of irritating and mistreating customers. Instead, for the vast majority of companies, complaints arise because some error occurs along the way. Perhaps a broker or customer service representative didn’t receive the proper training, or maybe a marketing team didn’t properly think through the language of a campaign or promotion. Whatever the case, complaints tell you what went wrong, and without them, you would have no route toward the root cause. Knowing that complaints get read by their supervisors, employees are more likely to act in a customer’s best interest whenever they can, and ask clarifying questions about their roles to avoid providing consumers with a negative experience.
Complaints Keep Your Business Competitive
Complaints tell you what is and isn’t working. Imagine a world in which you never hear from your customers—some people continue doing business with you, while others simply never return, and you never know why. In such a world, there’s no pressure to innovate and perform better. There’s nothing stopping a competitor from offering a superior experience and siphoning away your customer base overnight. This is one of the reasons the CFPB has published so many complaints in its public database. In the agency’s words, consumers who add their voices “help improve the financial marketplace”—that is, the marketplace as a whole ecosystem.
Complaints Help You Understand Your Customers
In addition to giving you the necessary information to meet customers’ immediate needs, complaints also help you understand consumers in a deeper way: their fears, their priorities, their values, what they expect from your employees, and what they believe is fair. Market research doesn’t always capture the same psychographic details. Only through complaints can you comprehend an individual’s genuine experience with your product or service. This kind of information allows you to improve everything from your messaging to sales to onboarding procedures.
Of course, you can’t properly collect and address consumer complaints without the right system in place. Learn how an automated approach compliance ensures your business never misses out on the information you need to continually improve.
Just a Reminder: We’re not your lawyer (of course, right?) Since we’re not, remember that this article’s for informational purposes and not intended to provide legal advice.
