What best describes the tone a sales associate should maintain when addressing complaints?

Maintaining a friendly and receptive tone when addressing complaints is essential for effective customer service. This approach fosters a positive interaction, helping to establish trust and rapport with the customer. When sales associates respond in a friendly manner, it shows empathy and understanding, which can significantly ease the customer's frustration and contribute to a more constructive dialogue.

Being receptive means actively listening to the customer's concerns and validating their feelings, which can lead to a more satisfactory resolution. This approach not only helps to de-escalate potentially tense situations but also enhances the overall customer experience, encouraging customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth for the brand.

In contrast, a defensive and unyielding tone can escalate tensions and make customers feel undervalued, while an indifferent and uninvolved tone may lead customers to believe that their concerns are not important, potentially driving them away. Similarly, an aggressive and accusatory tone can provoke further conflict and damage the relationship between the associate and the customer, ultimately harming the business's reputation. Therefore, a friendly and receptive tone is key to effectively addressing complaints and maintaining customer satisfaction.