The measure of you and your institution's character is the way you deal with a complaint. Here's a short quiz to help you judge your corporate "character" in the way you deal with complaints:

When a customer calls with a complaint do you or your people:

• Point the finger at another agent, department, institution or the customer herself?

• Assume the customer is wrong because he just doesn't understand how your business works?

• Do anything to mollify the customer?

Those are all real responses, which are practically guaranteed to send that customer packing. We all know that mistakes happen from time to time. When you combine people, technology, tight deadlines and loans involving most people's biggest asset, it's an explosive mixture. And sometimes it reaches critical mass. The truth is that the mistakes are not the problem. How you deal with them is what is important.

Instead of getting defensive the next time a customer complains, try asking yourself these questions:

• What are they saying?

• What do they want?

• What did we do?

• What are the immediate steps?

• What can we learn?

Once you have that information, use the "Three-Call Approach" for handling complaints and retaining the customer:

Call #1 -- The Initial Call
If a customer's gone to the trouble to make a complaint he or she still thinks you can do something about it. That means they still think of themselves as one of your customers. Your job is to make sure they still feel that way when the call is over.

1. Thank the person for bringing the situation to your attention. Tell them how much you appreciate them taking the time to let you know about it.

2. Hear them out.

3. Play back what they said using a lead-in phrase like: "This is what I'm hearing."

4. Let them know you're going to meet with your team and research the situation. Do not offer a solution until you do this.

5. Set a deadline to get back to them and meet it. This begins the process of rebuilding trust.

Call #2 -- The Call Back
This call has nothing to do with who was right or who was wrong. It has everything to do with demonstrating responsiveness and preserving the relationship.

1. Offer anther thank you. This time for giving you the opportunity to help.

2. Let them know you did the research and tell them what you found.

3. Admit any mistake made by your institution, apologize, explain how and why it happened and explain what you've done to rectify the situation.

4. Remember if you can add that you've change the system because they brought their complaint to your attention, this is particularly helpful.

5. Concentrate on rebuilding the relationship. That means resisting the urge to tell them they were "wrong" even if your research found that the complaint was not justified. If they have a complaint about, say not delivering when they expected, you didn't meet their expectations.

   If their expectations were off-base you didn't give them the right training on how the process would go. A phrase like, "I'm sorry we didn't adequately let you know what to expect of us," addresses this situation. "The bottom line is this: if they had the wrong perception of what and when they'd get things, the responsibility for this comes back to you," she reminds lenders.

6. Explain what will be done to rectify the situation.

Call #3 -- Follow-up
This step is not always necessary, but it's needed when the customer sees the issue as particularly serious. Your take on just how serious the complain is has nothing to do with whether this step is taken. It's the customer's perception that counts here.

1. Re-contact the customer with a phrase like, "This was serious enough to require an additional follow-up."

2. Take their temperature with something like "How are things going?"

3. Make sure the issue is put to bed. Test to see if the customer believes things are the way they should be

4. Thank them for taking the time to bring this to your attention.

Jeanne Rinaldo is the SVP, Relationship Manager and Customer Service for Integrated Loan Services (ILS). ILS is a member of Fiserv Lending Solutions. This nationwide company has over 60 years of experience providing innovative lending solutions to banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders. Our products and services streamline mortgage processes, ease workflow, cut overhead and eliminate loan-processing hassles. We provide instant web access and delivery through ILS eServices to nationwide loan support products including QuickClose LPI, ACA ValueGuard, appraisals, collateral assessments, credit reports, title searches, flood determinations, loan processing, convenience closings, escrow/funding and post closing review. Corporate offices are in Rocky Hill, Connecticut with additional locations in Fairfield Connecticut, Florida, California, New York, Maine and Massachusetts. For more information about the role of complaints in retaining clients, contact Ms. Rinaldo at jrinaldo@ils.com or phone or (800) 842-8423 ext. 1365.

Published: August 17, 2005

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