If you want a business to grow, you need to focus on building healthy customer relationships. However, you can’t always expect customers to be diplomatic whenever they reach out in case they need to dispute an issue.

Some customers may even resort to giving bad feedback about your business. Since people rely on what other people say about your offers, there’s a good chance that you will end up losing potential customers who are turned off by bad customer service.

Even if you have spent years building a well-known brand, you could still receive negative comments and reviews. You only need to know how you can turn a negative situation around before it gets worse. Here’s what you can do to solve a customer dispute and build valuable relationships with your audience.

1. Practice empathy

Customer service involves understanding where your customers are coming from and learning the kinds of solutions that fit their needs. Empathy goes a long way in letting your customers know that you care about their problems and that you want them to make the most of their experience.

By establishing empathy as the cornerstone of everything that you do, you are more likely to restore relationships. People are drawn towards brands that make the effort to improve their products and services. Listen to your customer’s concerns and how these are affecting them. This can diffuse any problem before it becomes too complicated to deal with.

2. Set up an effective workflow

Nothing can escalate a customer issue like letting them wait for days until they are directed to the right person. Your goal is to resolve an issue immediately. For this, you will need to come up with a workflow that shortens the time it takes for disputes to settle. This will involve knowing what to do once you receive a call or an email from an unsatisfied customer.

You may need to build workflows for every scenario such as an invoicing dispute or a request for technical assistance. You must also identify possible questions customers will be asking. List these questions in every step so you can draft out possible responses that could pacify customers. To be sure, test your workflow and see if it’s performing as you would expect. From there, you can make adjustments and prepare for other possible scenarios extending the time to resolve a dispute.

3. Use the right platforms

Considering the complexity of handling customer disputes, you need to have the right tools that can maximize customer service efficiency. Any business will need to invest in a robust customer relationship management platform that analyzes how well you resolve problems and responds to questions.

When using email as your primary customer service channel, consider using a platform that consists of team email performance software. This feature will help you track response times and ensure that no message gets overlooked. Aside from this, you can also include a chatbot on social media and your website. This is ideal for addressing minor and recurring client concerns so your customer service team can focus more on priority tickets.

4. Train your team

Even though AI and machine learning has revolutionized customer service, most consumers and B2B clients would still prefer talking to a natural person on the other end. Your business needs to be prepared for any complicated issue that automation can fix.

Invest in a quality customer service team by picking people with the right skills and experience. These people should also have a firm grasp of your brand’s vision and mission. You also need to train them when it comes to ensuring that the way they interact will align with the brand’s identity.

By investing in effective customer service, you are also giving your business more room to grow. Use these tips so you can prevent customers from leaving your brand and set your business for the long game.