Handling Complaints in Network Marketing
Posted in Watkins Business by Eldon on October 30th, 2006 Everybody with a network marketing business loves success and making money. Nobody in Watkins, or any other network marketing business, wants to hear complaints or problems. However, even with the best of opportunities, there will be times when you encounter complaints and problems you must deal with.
When faced with a complaint, the worst thing you can do is ignore it. That is our human nature - to ignore or gloss over a problem and hope it will go away. Frankly, many problems do seem to go away or resolve on their own, but it is always best to address any concerns that your customers or downline members have.
A customer complaint is usually easy to resolve - if they don’t like a product, and your company offers a money back guarantee on everything, simply help them resolve the issue and move on. Most customer problems will revolve around product quality issues or delivery issues. I am happy to say that I seldom have these types of complaints with Watkins products, as the company itself takes extraordinary steps to ensure that the customers are happy. However, it does happen in our industry and must be addressed.
Complaints from downline members are also very important to resolve. These can range from gripes about the compensation plan to product quality issues to just about anything you can imagine. You need to do your very best to resolve such issues. Sometime it is just a case of a new associate or inactive associate not understanding something about your business. Other times it can be an issue coming from a long-time member of your group. Do your best. If you are a veteran in your network marketing business, try to remember what it was like in the beginning. New associates can get lost and confused, with the result being complaints about different things.
You will encounter something else when dealing with complaints from network marketers in your downline. I hate to say it, but some people are just downright negative and do everything they can to justify a decision to quit their business. Have you ever seen this? It gets obvious because the person just cannot be satisfied, and nobody can resolve their issues. They are just bound and determined that the business is bad and they are going to prove it to you. When you find folks like this, just do your best and then let them move on. You cannot afford to waste time with chronic whiners and complainers. There are too many happy, positive people in your group that genuinely need your support and help - work with them!
Failure to help resolve complaints and issues with customers and downline is another reason that network marketers fail.
Note: This is the eleventh in a series of articles discussing reasons that network marketers fail and what can be done about it. An index to all of these articles can be found here:
Reasons Network Marketers Fail
About the Author:
Eldon Beard is a Watkins Manager with Associates All Across the USA and Canada
