ep. 025 • Yikes! You've Received a Client Complaint

Chelsea: You are an amazing hennapreneur. You value your clients’ experience. You pay attention to every little detail in their designs. You've worked really hard to build a reputation around your business that you're proud of. So when you receive negative feedback from a client, you start to feel that sinking feeling in your stomach. Now what? Well, that's what we're chatting about today.

Hey hennapreneurs! So, today I want to talk to you about what happens when you receive a complaint from a client. This is something that we hope is never going to happen to us.

You actually may go quite a while inside of your business before you receive your first complaint. And so I think in that instance it actually feels even more earth-shattering because you have this longstanding experience of having happy customers and happy clients. So when someone comes through and sends you that email or sends you that message expressing that they did not have a good experience and they're giving you this complaint, it can be incredibly demoralizing. You can almost be shaken by the fact that someone wasn't thrilled with what you provided them.

And so I want to talk to you guys a little bit about how you can better work through receiving client complaints. I want to chat with you a little bit today and give you a little bit of insight about what my own system is, my own thought processes are as it relates to receiving negative feedback, because I hate to point it out and I hate to spoil this for you, but it's inevitable. You can be the greatest artist on, you know, on the face of the earth. You can have all of the best business practices in place, but the bottom line is that you were not born to make everyone on the earth happy. It is absolutely inevitable and completely to be expected that at some point you are going to receive negative feedback from a client. You are going to receive that complaint. When that happens, you need to know how to handle that. And you need to know how to do that in a way that allows you to feel confident as well.

Today, I want to share with you three different ways that I like to approach this particular type of situation.

So the first thing is that I want you to take inventory of that situation, okay? So here is where you need to gather as much information as possible without projecting any feelings into the equation. Okay, I get it. When you receive a complaint or you receive negative feedback, you're likely feeling a lot of different emotions. You may be hurt. You may be frustrated. You may be kicking yourself thinking, “Man, I shouldn't have accepted that booking,” or “I knew it.” And you may even feel angry, right? There's times when there's anger even that is birthed from receiving negative feedback. There are cases where you feel that you over-delivered and the person was ungrateful. There are all sorts of circumstances where we may feel these sorts of negative emotions when we initially receive the complaint.

I'm going to ask that when you're working through that, you acknowledge those emotions, but that you then put them aside. You have to put them aside. You, as the business owner, need to try to be as objective as possible about what has occurred. You already know your own perspective. Acknowledge that perspective. You might even take a moment to write something out about it. You can journal about it, describe what your experience was, what were the feelings that you're having around this client or appointment. You can speak with a friend, you can even pop into the Hennapreneur community and chat about it. Acknowledge your emotions, get them out of your body. And then leave them there for a moment because you need to be objective.

You need to also consider what your client is feeling. Just like you're having all of these emotions, she's likely experiencing a number of low and also strong emotions. Most people don't go out of their way to make a complaint to a business. And especially as it relates to small businesses, most people won't take the time. Now, of course, there's that type of individual who just complains about anything and everything in life. And we're not talking about that person. The truth is, most of the time people will not provide you with feedback because it is inconvenient to do so. They will just be angry or unsatisfied with what happened and with the experience that they had, and they won't talk to you because most people are non-confrontational. Instead, what they'll do is take those complaints and share them with their friends or they will share them with their family or share them with other people inside of your community. And the fact that this person has reached out to you and given you this feedback tells you a lot about the strength of the emotions that she's experiencing.

Whatever it is that she shares with you, I want to encourage you to listen. Listen openly. Listen without wanting to formulate a response. Listen to gather information. You’re going to gather information about the experience that she had and the feelings that she had. But more importantly, I want you to gather as much information around what that complaint is, specifically.

Perhaps she's complaining because not enough people were seen. You know, you went to an event booking for her and she was expecting that you would be able to, you know, complete designs for 25 people and you only got to 15. Okay. That's a legitimate complaint.

What was going on in that situation? Let’s say you were working through each guest, but the guests were not coming up to the table to actually sit and get their henna done. Was it an issue of how many guests there would be and then the number was totally different? Was it an expectation around how large the designs were going to be or how intricate the designs were going to be? And then when you got there, there were more people which required for you to either maintain the size of the pieces that you guys had discussed, or make them smaller in order to address everyone who was present. Take the emotions out and look at the situation for what it is.

Perhaps you receive a complaint from someone who's saying, “Hey, I didn't get a good stain”. Okay. Gather information about that. Well, what did aftercare look like? How long did the paste stay on her skin? Did she remove it earlier? Did she wash her hands to take the paste off or did she scrape it off or did she use oil to wash? At what point did she next expose her hands to water? How long ago did she take that picture? How old was this henna in this photo that you're sending me, for example?

So you have so much opportunity to gather information. This is where you need to do it very early on. Okay. So process your emotions, set them aside, then gather whatever feedback your client has for you. And start to go on a detective hunt.

Here is where you want to gather as much detail as possible because once you've gathered all of that information then you really are going to come in, being as objective as possible, and ask was there something that was done wrong or that could have been done better. And perhaps that's on your side or perhaps that's on their side.

When I hear from my students or when I hear from clients inside of my programs who are experiencing an issue with one of their clients, I never make the assumption that my student or client is right. There’s always the possibility that we, as the artists, have done something wrong. Okay. Just like we know the ins and outs of henna. We know the ins and outs of our processes, but our clients don't right? So there, of course is the high likelihood that our clients have not done a thing correctly, but I don't make the assumption about who is right. You want to look and be objective.

And so once you've sat down with the facts of the situation, then you're going to make a decision. Okay. This is your second step. You need to make a decision.

So this is your business. You're the boss. You get to choose how you're going to respond to this complaint. That may be that, you know, perhaps you are going to offer them a discount on their next booked service. Perhaps you're going to offer them a refund for the service that they paid for and were unhappy with. Perhaps you're going to choose to do nothing and say, “Listen, this is what it is and there's nothing that I can offer you, but I'm happy to provide you some additional educational resources.” You may say, “I'm happy to point you back to a line in our agreement,” or whatever that looks like. Perhaps you're not going to offer them anything but information that affirms what you're doing, right?

In the instance of a client complaint that turns inappropriate, you might make the decision that you're going to part ways with that person entirely and you're not going to allow for them to book with you in the future. This is all up to you. This is all up to you. What's most important is that when you make that decision, you need to own it.

I like to take inventory of what happened there and make that decision. Part of my thought process includes what will the aftermath of this decision be because there's always collateral. There's always collateral in every situation; there's always nuance. And for me, I like to think about what does that aftermath look like? I like to consider how would I feel if this exchange between me and this unhappy client were screenshot and shared on the internet? Would I feel comfortable with the things that I said? How would I feel about how I carried myself inside of this interaction? And so that's the lens through which I approach any client exchanges, but especially client exchanges that relate to an unhappy y client or an unsatisfactory experience.

So with that in mind, I want you to communicate clearly; over-communicate about the actions that you're going to take and why that course of action is the action that you're choosing and then stick with it.

So you've made your decision and you're going to communicate that to them. This is what I can offer you. Or perhaps you're not offering anything. This is where I'd like to redirect you. I'd like to call your attention to this. Whatever this piece of information or this expectation that was set prior. This is why I'm offering you that refund. This is why I'm offering you a discount code for future service. This is why you are no longer going to be able to book services with me in the future, whatever that is, communicate what the decision is and the why behind it, and then stick with it. You have to stick with it. This is your business, protect it. This is your business, treat it with respect. This is your business and you get to choose. But if you're going to command respect from other people around your business, you have to operate with that for yourself as well.

The last piece — and this might take you by surprise — I'm going to ask you to do better. Negative feedback is always an opportunity to grow. Even in instances where you did everything right, there is still always room for improvement.

I mentioned that most people won't even bring you their complaint because most people don't wish to engage in confrontation. So the fact that this person has given you this feedback is a huge opportunity. It's highlighting something inside of your system, which perhaps you were unaware of, that isn't as effective as it could be, or isn't as efficient as it could be, or isn't as user-friendly as it could be.

How do I know that? Well, because the complaint exists. So be open and be honest with yourself. How could you better prepare your clients for an experience that is at a minimum consistent with their expectations?

Honestly, that's the keyword - expectations. How might you better educate, inform, or communicate expectations to them? And how might you better communicate your expectations of them as well?

Reserve harsh judgment of yourself. Just receive the feedback as a gift. We don't have to be self-loathing because we received a complaint; it's not necessary. This is a gift and it's a gift that provides insights on how you can better serve those people who visit you later. So take advantage of that. Be honest with yourself and then implement changes that would reduce the instance or the possibility for something like this.

So these are my tips, if you will, on how you can handle your client complaints.

You will receive complaints. If you haven't received them up until now, consider yourself very lucky and understand [that] it is coming. And if you have received complaints already, but perhaps felt a little bit insecure or unsure about how you're handling them, I hope that this provides you with some insight to how you can address complaints from an empowered perspective.

So just to have a quick recap, what I'm going to suggest that you do is, first take inventory of the situation, gather as much information as possible, set aside your emotions, and just try to look at the situation objectively.

Next, you're going to make a decision. You are the boss here. You get to choose what happens next. Make a decision. What actual course of action are you going to take? You’re going to communicate that course of action clearly to your client, and then stick with it because you need to.

Finally, your third piece of advice is, do better. Take the feedback. Whether you agree with it or not, take the feedback and assess how you can minimize the opportunity for similar feedback to be received. Where is there a hole that you can plug? Where is there a gap that you can fill? Where is there an opportunity for you to better educate, inform, and communicate expectations with your clients? At a minimum, we need to make sure expectations are met. Ideally, we go above and beyond the minimum, but we need to make sure we at least meet those expectations.

So with those three pieces of advice in mind, I want to encourage you to be gentle with yourself also. Receiving negative feedback is not a representation of you. It doesn’t define you. It doesn't mean that you're a failure. It doesn't mean that you've done anything wrong, necessarily. I'm not to say that there may not have been things that you did in that exchange that caused a righteous complaint. However, it doesn't say that you are wrong in running your business or that you're not cut out for this or any of that. What's important is for you to provide yourself with the space, the grace, and the permission to just accept the feedback that you received and harness it. Harness it to make you better and to make your business better so that you can better service clients moving forward, okay?

With that, we'll go ahead and wrap up. If you have had a client experience where you had to handle a complaint – whether it was interesting, you had no idea how to handle yourself, or you feel really good about the way things went I want you to jump in and join the conversation. Maybe you're dealing with this right now and you could use some help! You can join over on Facebook, just go ahead and visit Hennapreneur.com/community. Come jump inside of the conversation we're having in the Hennapreneur Community, where we're talking all about client complaints and how you can better navigate them. You can get some feedback from other artists. You can share your own experiences. And of course, I'll be there too to offer a little insight from my perspective as well.