Dealing with complaints

Any event organiser can testify to deal to at least one unpleasant scenario with an unhappy attendee. Itás upsetting for both parties and there are ways to deal with these situations.

Your mission is to deal with them in such a way that they walk away happy – or at least not cursing you. As twisted as it may sound, when you think about it, hereás an optimistic point of view: complaints actually give you an opportunity to improve your standing with your organisation, and your companyás standing with your attendees.

Prevent
Be careful during all the processes of the organisation. Many times, unhappiness and complaints can be avoided when an event is well planned. When detailing the program, preview the time required for those time slots that waiting is required, ask yourself what are the expectations of the guests, etc. In addition, show your guests that they are important to you, that you care about their expectations, their fears and explain to them what they can expect in your event.

Take them out of the crowd and resolve it privately
When someone is complaining in the crowd, take them out to somewhere quiet. Ask them to tell you what is wrong. Be ready to listen, keep up your pleasant composure, maintain eye contact and be understanding. It helps to reduce the stress when the person complaining knows that he is telling it all to someone who will help to make the situation better. If it is not possible to resolve it immediately, (for example, during a presentation), have them to come see you during the coffee-break.

Be willing to listen
When someone is angry, it is important that you listen and listen to why he is angry. Ask the person what is bothering him, why and repeat what he said to ensure that you have understood him correctly… try to be understanding. Be positive when listening. Maintain eye contact and show that you are trying your best to resolve the problem. Thank the person for his contribution, that the satisfaction of the guests and the succes of the event are important to you. When someone see that you are sincere and are willing to resolve the problem, he will feel calmer.

Explain clearly
After listening, if the problem is complicated, donát hesitate to explain its complicity to the guest. The most important thing is to get the guest to you help him understand that and that sometime cannot be done at this point in time and you will ensure that it will be better managed during the next event.

Tell them what you will do, not what you want to do
Explain to them clearly how you will resolve the issue. Be open and invite their contribution to the solution (even though you may not be really using the suggestions…), it helps to put the person more ease.

Act to resolve the complain
Make sure you do something about the issue after this conversation. Though there are times when there is nothing you can do about it, the least you can do is to acknowledge their pain and fix, throw in an apology as well and tell them you appreciate their bringing the problem to your attention.

Follow-up
If there is something you can do about it, make sure itás done and let the person know about the actions done to resolve the issue. Communicate it personally to the person or drop a note to the person.

Remember to be sympathic and show appreciation. The nicer you are, the more obliged is the person who is complaining, to be nice to you in return.