Respond to a customer complaint
Draft a complaint response that acknowledges the specific problem, says what happens next, and avoids empty apology language.
Yours to copy, change, and make your own.
Replace every [BRACKETED PLACEHOLDER] with your own material before you send it.
Draft a response to the customer complaint below.
Our side of the story: [WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED]
What we are willing to offer: [REMEDY, IF ANY]
Channel: [EMAIL / LETTER / REVIEW REPLY]
Rules:
- Address the specific things they complained about, in their order. No generic "we take feedback seriously".
- Apologise for what actually went wrong on our side. Do not apologise for things that were not our fault, and do not admit fault for anything I have not confirmed above.
- State concretely what happens next and by when.
- If they are owed the remedy, offer it plainly rather than making them ask.
- Match the channel: a review reply should be three or four sentences; an email or letter can be longer.
- Warm, human, no corporate passive voice ("mistakes were made").
- Use British English.
Complaint:
[PASTE THE COMPLAINT]- [WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED]
- Your organisation's account of events, confirmed facts only.
- [REMEDY, IF ANY]
- What you can offer: refund, redo, apology only. Be explicit if it is nothing.
- [EMAIL / LETTER / REVIEW REPLY]
- Where the reply will appear, which sets its length and formality.
- [PASTE THE COMPLAINT]
- The complaint itself, exactly as the customer wrote it.
Where it shines, and where it falls over.
- Service failures with a clear fix: delays, errors, missed appointments
- Public review replies where tone matters as much as content
- First-response holding replies while an investigation continues
- Fill in [WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED] honestly, including the part that was your fault; the draft is only as fair as your account.
- For public replies, ask for a version that moves the conversation to a private channel without sounding evasive.
The draft is built from your version of events. If you have not yet investigated, the response can confidently deny something that actually happened, which turns one complaint into two. Establish the facts first; this prompt writes the reply, it does not do the investigating.
Escalate rather than automate anything involving legal threats, regulators, discrimination claims, safeguarding, or injury. Those responses carry consequences a template cannot weigh, and a fast fluent reply is worse than a slow correct one. The same applies if this is the customer's second or third complaint about the same issue.
AI output is a first draft, not a finished product. You are responsible for whatever you send, publish, or decide with it.
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