It’s all very well rabbiting on about South Africans needing to stop whinging and start being constructive about tackling poor customer service, but what is the best way to go about complaining about poor service? Here are some top tips from getclosure, who we are partnering for the Don’t Complain campaign.
Once you have established that you do indeed have a legitimate complaint, here’s how to tackle shoddy customer service without losing your cool, and still get a satisfactory outcome.
Raise the issue immediately – obviously first prize is to have your problem sorted out then and there. Free car hire on your next holiday is not the same has having the car you booked provided on time, clean and in good working condition.
Be clear on what the problem is and how you would like it to be fixed. “I asked for my steak to be medium rare, not well done, please would you replace it?” is far more productive than “Your restaurant is a disgrace and I’ll never eat here again!”
Stay calm. As frustrating as the situation may be, you are more likely to get a good response if you remain polite and assertive. Remember you are speaking to another person.
If the person you are talking to is unhelpful or seems unable to do anything about your request, ask to speak to someone more senior in the organisation. Unfortunately many companies still don’t empower their staff to quickly rectify complaints using their own initiative.
If you have the patience to deal with a call centre, take down the details of whom you spoke to, the time of the call, and a reference number. This will make follow-ups easier (and is useful info to include if you lodge a complaint on getclosure).
If you still don’t arrive at a satisfactory outcome, or can’t stand to deal with call centres 
, submit your complaint for free at getclosure and the online service will get the complaint to the appropriate person in the organization that can do something about it.
And join our campaign to raise customer service levels in South Africa – find out more here.
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