7 THINGS TO REMEMBER WHILE DEALING WITH UNHAPPY ATTENDEES

We all, at some point or the other have dealt with unhappy guests or customers in our businesses. Whether we like it or not, customer satisfaction is extremely important, irrespective of whether you are an event manager or running your own business.

It is also particularly important to remember that there is no such thing as 100% customer satisfaction. At any event, no matter how successful or meticulously planned it may be, there will always be at least one complaint that comes in. However, what sets you apart from your competitors is how you react to these complaints. Your reaction is what will make or break that unhappy guest's entire event experience!

Here are a few tips to keep in mind while dealing with unhappy event attendees:

1. ALWAYS STAY CALM

It is necessary that, while dealing with unhappy customers, you always stay calm, irrespective of the other person’s tone. If need be, defend your company or staff, but in a respectful manner.

If you are dealing with the issue face to face, then be very aware of your body language . Do not stand with your hands crossed or on your hips. This will be perceived negatively and won’t do any good to the problem.

2. LISTEN

Make sure that you are paying close attention to the attendees concerns. There is a huge difference between hearing and listening . The former refers to the passive perception of sounds, which does not necessarily require much concentration. The later on the other hand, refers to active focus and concentration on perceiving what those sounds mean.

Make sure that the guest knows you are actively listening to them.
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3. DEALING WITH NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Very often, instead of coming directly to you with the problem, guests might take to your social media pages and post negative comments. The most important thing to remember here is do not delete or ignore these comments. Doing this will only make you come across as insensitive and careless. Not only that, since it is on your social media page, all your followers will notice.

Take time to respond to such comments, preferably by letting the guest know that they can contact you via email or phone by leaving a phone number or email id for them. Help them understand that you would be more than happy to solve their grievances on a 1 on 1 basis.

Make sure that, if you have a large social media following you either hire someone or get a software to scan through the many comments you receive and especially react to the negative ones.

4. DO NOT MAKE THE GUEST REPEAT THEIR CONCERN MULTIPLE TIMES

Very often guests tend to submit their grievances and the first response they get is an automated one. Then a company employee takes over and makes the guest repeat their entire problem again. More often than not, they get transferred to another employee and end up having to tell their story for the 3rd time.

Make sure that this doesn’t happen when you are dealing with unhappy guests. Most of the time, the customer just wants to be treated as a human being and be heard.

5. OFFER A SOLUTION

Make sure you offer a solution after you have understood their grievances. This will help them know you care.

Be sure to ask the guest if they are satisfied with your solution. If they aren’t, try asking them what they are looking for. This will help you reach a solution and help them faster.

6. APOLOGIZE

Be sure to apologize for whatever grievance has been caused. And even more importantly, be genuine about it. Fake apologies are worse than no apologies at all. Also, always follow up with the guest. This shows that you are fully committed to the cause. Another reason is repeat business . 92% of attendees tend to stop using a particular brand after having 2-3 bad experiences while 26% say they would stop after just one bad experience, according to Forbes .

7. FEEDBACK FORMS

This is a good way to understand how you can improve your event, because it gives you an understanding of all the attendees' viewpoints, and hence, helps you prioritize issues, if any.

Doing so also reduces the chances of any guest creating a scene because of an issue because they would mention it in the form.

In conclusion, keep in mind that every event has some kind of glitches or the other. While some may be small and can be handled easily, some may not. Just keep the above mentioned tips in mind and don’t forget to thank the attendee for raising the issue at the end. This and digitization of events will help you give a superior event experience. We at Mavent Tech can help with that. Contact us to know more!!