Owning a work form home business will inevitably lead to the occasional customer complaint, regardless of the quality of your product or service. It's something that can't be avoided.

Low-end customers pay little and expect the world, while high-end customers pay a lot, but expect the impossible. You will never be able to please everyone all of the time no matter what you do.

Even if you run yourself ragged trying — there will always be someone who won't be happy. So how do you deal with these situations?

Don't Be Rude or Flippant

The customer's complaint might seem dumb to you, or even insulting — but that doesn't mean you can respond in kind. It's essential that you treat every customer complaint seriously, and act as if it's 100% your fault.

Remember, unhappy customers are more likely to talk about their experience to other of your potential customers (research varies, but some say that they might tell as many as 20).

Unfortunately, those potential customers will never hear your side of the story, so taking care to keep unreasonable customers happy is really a defensive technique to prevent them from damaging your business. Don't be afraid of complaints, rather, you should actively soliciting them, to give you a chance to straighten out the situation to keep them satisified.

Write a Letter of Apology

People do appreciate efforts you take when write them a formal letter of apology, perhaps saying you're sorry the product or service wasn't to their satisfaction and you appreciate they took the time to explain to you how you can improve. Here's an example:

"Dear Sir,

It's come to my attention that you weren't happy with the service you received from my company in respect to the delivery of items to your home. We have now contacted our delivery service and corrected the issue, although I understand that this came too late to avoid inconveniencing you.

I would like to sincerely apologize to you for the bad experience you've had with my company, and hope this will not harm our chances of doing business together again in the future."

Make sure you sign the letter yourself, in pen. People hate seeing letters with printed signatures.

Offer a Partial Refund

The closing part of your letter should offer a refund of as much as you can afford to give — in this scenario, for example, where there was a problem with delivery, you should offer to refund the full cost of delivery, plus a little extra to cover the inconvenience.

In this way, you can flip a dissatisfied customers into one of your most satisfied ones. They might tell everyone they know there was a small problem that wasn't your fault, and they probably complained too harshly, but you handled it courteously and sent them a refund.

Gaining a reputation for responding quickly to complaints is some of the best word-of-mouth marketing you will ever get. What's more, that customer you treated well is likely to return and do business with you again.

Do Some Complaining Yourself

Often when a customer complains, it wasn't caused by you — it was some kind of problem with your supplier, or someone else you rely on. Of course the customer doesn't know this, but you do, and you need to do something to straighten out the situation so it doesn't happen again.

You could write them a letter of complaint, such as:

"Dear Sir or Madam,

Due to your service being unavailable this week, I've received the attached customer complaints. I hope you'll understand that I'm very displeased, and I'm currently considering alternative suppliers."

Along with this letter, enclose a copy of every customer complaint you received due to their failure to deliver on time. Your supplier will often be eager to keep you on as a customer and offer compensation to keep you satisfied which you can pass on to your customers, or use to cover the cost of refunds you've already paid out.

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