Emails for Administration
Emails for external correspondence: dealing with a complaint
Section A: Definition
A complaint in the workplace is a situation in which a customer is discontented with either the product or the service of your company, and has gone through, from his/her point of view, an unsatisfactory experience.
Section B: Purpose
The purpose of dealing with a complaint is to mitigate the unpleasant situation, calm down the complainant, and rectify the mistake if any. You also need to express your goodwill and thus secure future business with the same customer.
Section C: Content
1. Subject
State very clearly what the complaint is about in the subject. When you reply directly to the email of complaint sent by the customer, you can revise the original subject as follows:
e.g.
the original subject: “Complaint about the shipment of wrong products”
your revised subject: “Response to your complaint about the shipment of wrong products”
2. Salutation
Write the surname of the complainant.
e.g. Dear Mr Ko / Dear Ms Yu / Dear Mrs Fan
Remember not to write the full name such as “Dear Mr Gordon Yip, “Dear Ms Margaret Tang”, etc.
3. Introductory paragraph
In the first paragraph, you need to acknowledge that you have received the complaint and what the complaint is about and the date. If it is about a product, state the file number or order number. Then, you have to make an apology about the situation no matter whether the complaint is justified or not.
Examples of useful expressions:
- Thank you very much for your email dated … about your order no. B3967.
- I am writing to acknowledge the receipt of your email dated … regarding your order …
- Thank you for taking your time to write the email dated …
- We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
- Please accept our sincere apologies about the unhappy situation you have experienced.
- We can totally understand your feelings at this moment.
- We can completely understand the frustrations you have since your expectations are not met.
- We would like to apologize for …
4. Address the complaint
In the next paragraph, state exactly what has happened, as mentioned by the complainant in his/her email to your company.
Examples of useful expressions:
- You have mentioned that you have ordered 3,000 units of V3078. However, we have sent you 3,000 units of V3077.
- You have placed an order of 50,000 units of P2645, but we have delivered only 40,000 units to you.
- You have approached our customer service for the delivery of the products you have ordered but have not received any confirmation of your order after one month.
- You went to our store on 27th May, 20XX trying to exchange your dress for another colour but was rejected by our staff.
- You mentioned that you were treated very rudely by our staff on 26th May, 20XX in our Shatin Branch.
5. The investigation
After you have stated the problem, you need to write about the action you have taken since you have received the email of complaint and whether the complaint is justified or not.
Examples of useful expressions:
- After a thorough investigation, we have found that it was our mistake for entering the wrong number of units into our computer. Therefore, we have sent you the correct number of units now.
- As a result of our investigation, we have discovered that you have actually instructed us to send you 40,000 units, which we have done so.
- According to our investigation, the item was damaged owing to an accident and not owing to substandard manufacturing.
- The problem was resulted from …
- This problem happened because of/owing to …
- The cause of the mistake was due to …
- The error was the result of …
6. The follow-up action
In the next paragraph, if the complaint is justified, apologize to the complainant again and show him/her that you will try your best to take remedial action and give suitable compensation.
Examples of useful expressions for apologies:
- We would very much like to apologize for the mistake we have made.
- We hope that you will accept our sincere apologies.
- We would really like to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you.
- Please accept our most sincere apologies.
- We are truly sorry for causing you so much trouble in this case.
- Please forgive our oversight in this matter.
- We are really sorry that we have not succeeded in meeting your standards this time.
Examples of remedial action:
- We have delivered the correct units by courier and these should arrive at your office by 31st May, 20XX.
- To express our goodwill, we would like to offer you a 20% discount on your next order with us.
- In order to show our goodwill, we would like to offer you a $500 cash coupon upon your next purchase with us.
- We will train our staff more thoroughly in serving the customers. Meanwhile, we have appointed a more experienced staff to follow your order from now on and hope that you will be satisfied with his service.
- We have already sent you a replacement of the product and will offer you a free delivery service on your next order.
However, if after investigation, you have found that the complaint is not justified, you still need to apologize (refer to the useful expressions above). Then, request the complainant to understand your situation.
Examples of useful expressions:
- Please understand our company policy that we can only replace items because of faulty manufacturing.
- According to the email you sent us for your order, there is no mistake in the number of units we have delivered to you and we hope that you can understand the situation.
- We can imagine your frustration but please understand the real situation after our investigation.
- Since your guarantee period has expired, we hope you can understand that …
- Unfortunately, we need to point out that …
- We very much regret to inform you that …
7. To reiterate your goodwill and express your willingness to continue doing business
In the last paragraph, show your goodwill again and state that you are very willing to continue doing business with the complainant in the future.
Examples of useful expressions:
- Thank you very much for writing to us. We look forward to your future orders and ensure you that we will deal with them with the utmost care and concern.
- We assure you that your future orders will be dealt with promptly without any mistakes.
- We would very much like to be of service to you in the near future and ensure you that there will not be any errors.
- Thank you very much for choosing to do business with us this time and we look forward to serving you again soon.
- Thank you very much for your patronage and we sincerely hope that there will be future orders from you.
8. Complimentary close
Use “Yours sincerely” or “Yours truly”. Type your full name with your job title and the company name.
e.g.
Yours sincerely
FONG Tai Man Howard
Sales Manager
Global Limited
Section D: Things to consider
- Deal with a complaint without any delay. A dissatisfied customer, of course, would like his/her complaint to be addressed to at once.
- Remember to calm down the complainant by giving an apology first no matter whether his/her complaint is justified or not.
- Give suitable responses according to the situation under discussion and use an appropriate remedial action. However, don’t make any promise which cannot be kept.
- Always be courteous and show your empathy.
- Write to the complainant later to find out how he/she feels about the reply to his/her complaint and the follow-up action.
Exercise
Read the following reply email to a complaint from a company in Jiangmen in Guangdong ordering 1,000 computers and find out the mistakes. Answer the questions which follow.
Dear Mary Blacksmith
Hi! Thanks for your email. We are sorry about your situation.
You have ordered 1,000 computers from us but we have sent you 100. Sorry!
We have delivered 900 computers to you, which will arrive soon.
Thank you and see you.
With love
Johnson
No. The surname with the title (Mr/Ms/Mrs) should be written instead of the full name without the title, so it should be “Dear Ms Blacksmith”.
The style is too informal. The writer should use more formal words, for example, “Thank you very much for your email dated 27th May, 20XX with the order no. 2954. We sincerely apologise for the unhappy situation you have experienced.”
The writer can mention a thorough investigation into the matter. The expression “Sorry!” is again too informal.
No. The writer should state the exact date on which the computers will arrive.
There should be remedial action such as giving a discount for the next order or offering a free delivery service.
There should be words to show goodwill such as “Thank you very much and we look forward to doing business with you again in the near future”.
No. The writer should use words such as “Yours sincerely” or “Yours truly” and write his full name, job title and the company name.
The following is a sample of a reply email to a complaint.
From: Johnson Canswill
To: Mary Blacksmith
Subject: Response to your complaint about the delivery of wrong number of computers
Dear Ms Blacksmith
Thank you very much for your email dated 27th May, 20XX with the order no. 2954. We sincerely apologise for the unpleasant situation you have experienced.
You have mentioned in your email that you have ordered 1,000 computers from us. However, we have delivered only 100 computers to you. After receiving your email, we have conducted a thorough investigation into the matter, and found that it was the mistake of the staff in our Marketing Department about the number of items in your order.
We have sent you 900 computers which will arrive in one week’s time. To show our apologies and our goodwill, we are offering you a free delivery service in this situation and also a 20% discount on your next order.
Please accept our sincere apologies to any inconvenience caused to you. We look forward to doing business with you again in the near future. Thank you very much.
Yours sincerely
Johnson Canswill
Customer Service Manager
Further References
1. Response Letter to a Complaint (Format & Sample)
This website gives information on how to respond to a letter of complaint and has samples of various templates.
https://www.docformats.com/response-letter-to-a-complaint/
2. 5 Examples of Great Email Replies to Customer Complaints
This webpage shows examples of emails for replying to complaints.
https://supportbee.com/blog/examples-of-great-email-replies-to-customer-complaints
3. How to respond to an unhappy customer emails
This video is about how to respond to an unhappy customer of a hotel and of a restaurant.