Jean Hanson

Many of us started our business by doing the cleaning ourselves. And because we were excited about our new venture, we took extra care to make sure we did a good job for our customers. We laid the foundation for good customer service because it was our name and reputation on the line

Because we did such good work, we gained a following and the business started to grow. Soon it was time to hire employees. We hired them, took care of the required paperwork, then took them out on the job with us and showed them the ropes.

As the business grew and we hired more employees it became harder for us to follow up on every employee every day. And that's when it started. We came into the office one morning, the phone rang and it was a customer who called to complain that 2 trash cans weren't emptied and the toilet paper is empty. Oh, and by the way, this isn't the first time this has happened, it's been going on for a while.

Does any of this sound familiar? As business owners, we work very hard and we work very long hours. Don't we deserve to have employees that take care of business so we don't have to come into the office every morning only to dread our customer's phone calls? How did we get to this place and what are we going to do to change our attitude about our customers?

How you handle customer complaint calls will affect many things in your business. If you handle them right your business should continue to grow. But if you let your emotions and frustrations take over; if you begin to "hide" from taking customer calls, chances are you may not even want to stay in the business any more. It's the difference between whether or not you'll be happy running your business or wondering how you can get out of the business.

Keep in mind that customers who call to complain actually want to continue working with you. Many of us have had customers who fired us for no apparent reason, but when we started digging we found out that there were in fact problems with the cleaning, yet they never bothered to call and tell us there was a problem. Chances are, you never had much of a relationship with them in the first place. So when a customer calls to complain, keep this in mind and then deal with the issue quickly, and in an understanding and caring way. When you do this you will have loyal customers who know they can call you when they need help. You will gain their respect for taking care of business and they will have more confidence in your ability to handle whatever comes up.

And finally, make it easy for your customers to complain. Yes, that's right! When they know they can reach out to you, it means you have a relationship with them. And as long as you take care of business and maintain that relationship, you will have long-term customers.

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Jean Hanson helps owners of small cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through her online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for weekly cleaning tips at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com.