No matter what you do in business, there will always be someone who will hate some aspect of your product or service, for whatever reason. But instead of loathing or ignoring them, try listening instead. Oftentimes, these haters have a valid point and listening to them can be the ticket to propel your business to new heights.
Why Your Business Needs Haters
1. Even Haters Can Help Boost Your Sales
Did you know it is easier and cheaper to retain a customer than it is to find a new one? Depending on your industry, acquiring a new customer can be 5 to 25 times more expensive than simply retaining your current customer base. In fact, this study from Harvard Business Review shows by increasing your customer retention rate by a meagre 5%, you can enjoy increased profits of up to 95%.
Of course, some of the customers in your retention pool might be haters. And you may not have a choice but to work with them. Listen to their complaints and show them you genuinely care with positive actions.
2. Haters Give You Valuable Feedback
Most haters will not hate you without a valid reason. By taking negative feedback constructively, it can help improve your business and services. Do you know that 95% of your unhappy customers do not complain? So, if that remaining 5 % get vocal, your best bet is to listen.
By listening to these complaints, you uncover problems you may have missed. And fixing these issues will make your customers happy and more loyal to you.
How to Deal with Haters
In his book, Hug Your Haters, Jay Baer introduced an acronym called H.O.U.R.S. that you can use when dealing with haters. Let’s talk about each one.
1. Be HUMAN
Treating your haters as real people instead of mere statistics will help you gain their respect. Interact with them in a personable way. Personalise your approach and avoid those canned replies. Embrace their complaints and accommodate them as best as you can. “Out love” your competition and even your most vile hater will stay with you.
2. Use only ONE channel
Haters or not, customers don’t like being pushed all over the place. Never refer your customers to another person, a FAQ page, or another site. These clients need your help and they look up to you. Shoving them to another channel will only put them off and will make them more frustrated.
3. UNIFY your data
Documenting all of your customer complaints and their respective solutions will help you and your team become more effective and efficient in customer service. Unifying your data for quick access in the future leads to our last point which is….
4. RESOLVE your customers’ complaints with SPEED
Don’t make your customers wait for weeks for a solution. Take time to listen to a complaint, make sure you understand it, and then offer a solution if it is readily available. If not, politely tell your customer you will look into the issue and give them a definite date when you will have the solution ready for them.
Be Proactive when Dealing with Your Haters
Sometimes, it is tempting to just stay silent when a customer is rampaging about your business online. I like this quote from Jay Baer:
“Everything online is amplified…If you choose to not interact, that silence is amplified, too.”
Choosing to ignore a customer complaint will say a lot about your business. And the last thing you want to hear is “they don’t care about us.” Dealing with your customer complaints proactively can turn an initial problem into a superb customer experience that could turn your haters into loyal advocates. Isn’t that amazing?
Being proactive also means developing the ability to predict a complaint before it even happens. Don’t wait for a hater to point out a problem to you. If you know something is wrong, fix it right away. As Jay Baer puts it, this is “customer experience sorcery of the very best kind.”
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