31 ways to respond to customer complaints

Best Responses to Customer Complaints 

Customer complaints may not be pleasant to deal with, but they’re actually good for your business. Without them, you might never learn about problems with your product, processes, or marketing.

Not knowing is dangerous: You can only solve the problems that you know about. The ones you ignore continue to exist, causing you to lose customers and revenue in the long run. Studies show that, for every five customers with problems, one will switch brands the next time they buy.¹

Given that complaints are actually helpful, it’s amazing that companies aren’t better at dealing with them. Here at TextExpander, we’ve been honing our ability to receive and learn from negative feedback for years.

In this post, we’ll share our step-by-step approach to handling customer complaints and the tools we use to make the process easier.

How to handle customer complaints

Say thanks

How you begin a customer support interaction matters². When handling a complaint, start by thanking the customer for sharing their feedback.

You should be grateful: most unhappy customers don’t complain¹, leaving you in the dark about broken features or processes.

The ones who do complain are the ones who genuinely care about your business (or product/service). By complaining, they’re not only giving you a chance to keep them as a customer but also to do better as a business.

Here are some phrases you could use to say thanks:

• “Thanks for reaching out about this!”
• “Thank you for letting me know.”
• “Thank you for taking the time to share that with us.”
• “Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

Apologize

Once you’ve thanked them for reaching out, apologize to them for the trouble.

Companies are notoriously bad at apologizing³: Most avoid saying sorry at all costs, preferring instead to highlight their good intentions or use euphemisms like “missed the mark”.

Don’t be like them: as Sean O’Meara, co-author of a book on corporate apologies told an interviewer³, “If you fail, you don’t get to speak to your own virtues.”

Apologizing is just as easy as saying “sorry”. Here are a few phrases to help you with that:

• “I’m sorry you’re having trouble.”
• “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this.”
• “I’m so sorry about the issue with x.”

Empathize

Apologizing is essential, but it’s not enough. You have to show the customer you understand where they’re coming from. Here are phrases to acknowledge and empathize with their pain:

• “I understand how that’s frustrating.”
• “I’ve had something like this happen before — I know how frustrating it can feel.”
• “I understand how inconvenient this is for you.”
• “I understand that this issue has caused _______ (consequence), and that’s not acceptable.”
• “I get how this could be confusing.”
• “That’s not okay.”

Dive deeper

Now ask questions to get to the root of their problem. Try using these phrases:

• “Can you explain what you mean by…?”
• “Could you give me an example?”
• “Can you expand on that?”
• “Let me know if I’m off the mark here.”
• “It seems like XYZ thing happened.”

If you understand the problem but not the customer’s desired outcome, try asking:

• “What would your best-case scenario look like?”

Offer a solution

Ask them if it’s okay to offer a solution first.

“Asking for permission in a heated exchange gives the customer a moment to willingly cooperate and come to the best solution. It puts you on their side and positions you both against the problem rather than customer vs service rep,” writes A.J. Beltis, content marketing manager at HubSpot.

Here are two phrases to use:

• “Can I share a few options I’ve come up with to make things right?”⁴
• “I think it may help to _______ (possible solution). If you’re willing, here’s how to do that:”

If you need more time, let the customer know — and tell them when they can expect to hear from you again using the phrases below:

• “I’ll work with our team here to resolve this. I’ll email you as soon as it’s fixed.”
• “I’ll get back to you in _______ (hours/weeks/days).”
• “Let me talk to my manager and see what we can do to fix this ASAP. I should have an answer for you by [time/date].”

Follow up

If possible, check that the problem is fixed. If you can’t do that, ask the customer to let you know if they still need help. Here are a couple of phrases for following up:

• “I’ve tested this and it appears to be working as expected. But please let me know if you’re still running into issues.”
• “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.”

Show appreciation

Now, let them know you value their business and their feedback:

1. Find a way to make up for their trouble. Waive the fees for using your service for the next month or two. Give them a free upgrade. Send them a gift in the mail.
2. Let them know you’ve taken measures to prevent the issue from happening again.

Here are phrases to show your appreciation:

• “We’d love to make this up to you.”
• “We want you to have confidence in us.”
• “I hope this in some part makes up for whatever loss your business incurred.”
• “Our team is making it their new priority to ensure this problem does not happen again.”
• “We are going to make some major changes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Customer complaint response examples you can adapt

A complete complaint response puts the steps above into one message: thank the customer, apologize, show you understand, explain the fix, and say what happens next. Here are three example replies for common complaints. Swap the bracketed details for your own and keep the structure.

Late or missing order

Hi [Customer Name], thank you for letting me know, and I’m sorry your order hasn’t arrived. I understand how frustrating it is to wait for something you need. I’ve checked with our shipping team, and [what happened]. I’ve [sent a replacement / issued a refund] today, and you’ll get a confirmation email within [time frame]. I’ll check in on [date] to make sure everything arrived. We’d love to make this up to you, so [goodwill gesture].

Billing error

Hi [Customer Name], thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’m sorry about the incorrect charge on your [month] bill; that’s not okay. I’ve reviewed your account, and you were charged [amount] for [reason]. I’ve refunded the difference, and it should appear in [time frame]. I’ve also [fixed the setting / flagged the issue] so it doesn’t happen again. Please let me know if you have any other questions about your account.

Poor service experience

Hi [Customer Name], thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I’m sorry your experience with our team on [date] fell short. You should have [what they should have received], and I understand why you’re disappointed. I’ve shared your feedback with [team or manager], and we’re [specific change]. Can I share a few options I’ve come up with to make things right? [Option 1] or [Option 2].

For more wording to mix in, our customer service phrases cover openers, transitions, and closings. To keep replies like these consistent, save each one as a TextExpander Snippet with fill-ins for the name, date, and fix, and share it with your team so every agent starts from the same approved response. Snippets work in any app you type in, on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, and Android. See how TextExpander for customer support works.

Useful tools for handling complaints

Here are the tools we use to respond to customer complaints.

HelpScout

We use HelpScout folders to organize conversations based on topic and urgency — this helps us prioritize customers who need immediate help. We also use the HelpScout-Jira integration to track customer complaints and follow up when the issue has been resolved.

HelpScout’s features include:

• Mailbox
• Knowledge Base
• Live Chat
• Workflows
• Reporting
• Integrations

HelpScout starts at $20 per user per month.

TextExpander

We use TextExpander to create Saved Replies to customer complaints (and access them with just a couple of keystrokes).

TextExpander enables us to:

• Save proven messaging (including good responses to customer complaints)
• Give teams easy access to company knowledge they need every day
• Save time by typing less

TextExpander has a Free plan, and paid plans start at $5 per user per month, billed annually. See TextExpander pricing.