You need to understand what the other person needs, but no matter how hard you try to do a good job and to satisfy all employees’ and customers’ needs, complaints will arise. A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with a situation. When you handle a complaint, don’t just quickly dismiss it; you need to be responsive as you are using damage control.

However, if you have problem employees with a bad attitude who are never happy and always complaining to everyone, they can drag others down with them, so it is best to discipline and fire them to avoid ongoing problems. Not handling employee complaints effectively can create resentment, low morale, low productivity, and increased turnover. So it is advisable to have an open-door policy that allows employees to feel free to come to you with a complaint. Here are the five steps of the process.

First, if you are talking, they are hearing you, and it’s not about you. So you have to listen to their case. If you can’t paraphrase the complaint, you usually can’t resolve it. Second, complainers often have a good solution; but just because you ask doesn’t mean you have to do it. Third, you may need to get some facts and talk to someone, including other employees involved in the complaint and your boss, before you can make a decision.

Fourth and fifth, without a plan and implementation and follow-up, nothing will change. You need to address the current complaint, but you usually also need to take action so that it doesn’t happen again. Handling a customer complaint is critical because customer satisfaction is the major goal of many organizations. On the positive side, complaints provide feedback that can be used to improve.