On the road to entrepreneurship and business success, you may hit a few speedbumps. Your customers may lodge a complaint against you with the Better Business Bureau or you could face a lawsuit from a faulty product or a slip and fall at your café or storefront. While it can happen any number of ways, and how you handle it can determine how your business suffers or thrives afterward. Here are three tips for handling claims against your company like a boss.
Be Open-Minded
When your customer files a claim, remain open-minded. This can actually help you discover problems within your company you did not know about until the claim. When you react to the claim with an attitude of examining all sides of the issue and study it from all angles, you better understand your company and you can better calmly determine what action to take. That being said, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure your business insurance policy will help cover any potential problems.
Set aside your emotions and avoid challenging their complaint while they state it. Simply listen. They may not have decided to sue your firm yet. Your reaction can help you. Before you act, contact your attorney.
Know the Claimant’s Rights
You will want to know the rights of a personal injury claimant in order to handle the claim correctly. Contact your attorney to discuss the merits of the case. This will help you understand how you can handle the claim the right way.
Your attorney will review with you the statement of the claimant or complaining customer. Work with your lawyer to craft a reply that addresses the issue, solves the problem and offers to settle things out of court. Your legal representation can help you offer a solution that does not necessarily admit fault. While you should gracefully thank the customer for bringing the problem to your attention, you need to offer a potential resolution that does not admit fault. To do so would provide them leverage if they do decide to sue you.
Moving On in Business
Your attorney may suggest a simple apology and an out of court agreement that would make things right. This could include something as simple as your company providing a replacement product and extended service. It could also extend to a court case that examines your company’s “duty of care” and “reasonable care” to determine whether you are guilty of negligence. Once the decision has been reached as to how to address the problem, take action and move on in your business. Sometimes having trainings or personal coaching can help company culture recover after something like this. Do not dwell on it. Do use the single person’s complaint or claim as a catalyst for addressing larger issues. If the claimant uncovered a fault in your product design, your first order of business after settling with the claimant is to fix the product fault. Not only is this good business, but it also saves you from future lawsuits from other customers who experience the same problem.
Dealing with a customer claim can cause a speedbump, but it does not have to turn into a roadblock for your business success. Addressing it in a forthright, honest manner and using it as a change catalyst for better business procedures and practices or improved products can actually bring you further success.
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