Complaints to Sales

Every once in a while we get those dreaded complaints from our clients, and in my case, it was my aunt. If I was the same as I was years ago when I first entered the business world, it would've caused a lot of panic and stress to me because my aunt is a doctor whom I look up to as a very successful individual practicing her craft, on top of the fact that I was promoting health products to her. But since I already find it normal, it was just another normal and easy day for me.

Her message went on like this... (translated in English)

"Aunt: Hi Steve, I opened a bottle of Active Calcium this morning. To my dismay it doesn't have any plastic cover to lift and the tablets are yellowish. Can you replace this?"

To make matters worse, I was away in Thailand for a 2-week vacation so the only way for me to handle the situation is via Facebook messenger and email. So I just calmly asked her for photos that I can send to the office.

"Me: Hi auntie, can you take a photo of the bottle and send them to me so I can send the office an email? Please take a photo of both outside and inside, including the bar code showing the serial numbers."

She then sent me the photos...

I then thanked her for sending me the photos and politely asked if she could wait til I get back and I will handle it. Because I handled it confidently, she also calmly said yes. (Honestly, I could've handled it even when I was in Thailand but I did not want to add a pile of work to my to-do's while I was on vacation so I politely asked- if she said that it was urgent, I would've sent the email right there and then and resolved it.)

Fast forward to when I was back, I sent an email to the head pharmacist to assist us and the great thing about the company is that I already have 100% complete trust that they will work on it since the company has a zero-tolerance policy for errors. They have a 100% money back guarantee and a replacement guarantee. This ensured me the credibility of the company. Take note: Even the best companies still incur some errors, take Samsung for example. 

What's important is that the company delivers and they did. This is what has gotten me through the complaint without any panic, I had full trust and belief both in the products and the company.

So the company replaced my aunt's product and it turned out that it had a seal but it was stuck on the bottle cap. Still, they replaced it without any hesitations. And because my aunt was so pleased with the service, she will be ordering more and in bulk.

Now do you see how being calm and confident can help you? So the next time you encounter such objections, just remember these two things- trust the company (especially if it already has a built credibility) and leverage on their service (just handle what you can and forward everything to the experts).

You can also check out my personal blog about Lifestyle and Leadership here- https://stevecang.wordpress.com/.