如何回复客户的投诉信件？下面的方法教你轻松搞定。
Difficult Letter #3: Responding To an Unjustified Complaint
THE SITUATION
An HSBC customer in Hong Kong has written to complain about charges for returned cheques.
The customer's cheque was returned twice.
l The customer's cheque, #012345 for HKD5,000, was returned when presented for payment on 3 April because the customer's account was already overdrawn by HKD750.
l The customer's wife deposited a cheque for HKD5,000 from her account into her husband's account on 4 April.
l The customer's cheque, #012345 for HKD5,000, was returned a second time when presented for payment on 5 April because the account had insufficient funds, ie only HKD4,250.
l The Bank charges HKD100 for each returned cheque.
In his letter, the customer asked HSBC to refund the charges for returned cheques.
One of your colleagues drafted a response and has asked for your comments.
THE FIRST DRAFT
Evaluate the tone of the first draft below.
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12 April 200X
Mr John Lee
Flat 25B Tower 1
333 Kwun Tong Road
Kowloon
Dear Mr Lee
Thank you for your letter of 10 April requesting a refund of overdraft charges on your current account. Let me explain the situation.
Cheques presented for payment are cleared after banking hours by the Clearing House. The drawer's account is automatically debited at that time. If this results in an overdraft, the Bank decides the next day if we will honour the cheque.
Unfortunately, this happened twice when cheque number 012345 was presented on 3 and 5 April.
I am sorry, therefore, that we are unable to refund the overdraft charges of $200.
I hope that I have helped to clarify the situation. You are a valued customer, and we appreciate you taking the time to write to us.
Yours sincerely |
What do you think of this draft?
Write your comments on a piece of paper. Then, compare your comments with the evaluation below.
THE FIRST DRAFT - EVALUATION
The letter is quite courteous. The writer has used "magic words" to be polite and pronouns to be personal. The writer has also apologised for being unable to grant the customer's request.
Unfortunately, the writer hasn't fully explained the situation. If the customer is unaware of the situation, he won't be able to understand why you think his complaint is unjustified.
In addition, the writer did not suggest how to avoid this problem in the future. In other words, the writer doesn't offer any help to the customer. As a result, the reader may not think that you value him as a customer.
What, then, is the best way to respond to unjustified complaints?
IMPROVING THE DRAFT
How could you improve the draft?
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You should begin as the writer did, ie with a neutral sentence (eg "Thank you for..."). You should then add a sentence to express empathy if the customer has been embarrassed or inconvenienced (eg "I regret the inconvenience this may have caused you."). However, you should not apologise, if the Bank did nothing wrong.
Next, you should explain the situation in detail. However, you must not blame the customer, even if he has made a mistake. Using a passive verb form (cf Chapter 6) helps you do this. "Your account was overdrawn" sounds more polite than "You overdrew your account".
If you need to refuse a customer's request, you should do it only after you explain the situation.
Before closing, you should suggest a way for the customer to avoid this problem in future. Such an offer will show that you value the customer. |
IMPROVING THE DRAFT - APPROPRIATE PATTERN
How do you structure the contents when you need to respond to a customer's unjustified complaint?
In the table below, the pattern for responding to an unjustified complaint is incomplete. You need to complete it.