Book Review: A complaint is a gift
Posted on August 18th, 2009 by Shane Gill – No Comments
“Quit whingeing, whining, wailing, nagging, grieving, griping, grumbling, groaning, moaning, fussing, fretting, faulting, bellyaching and criticizing you sniveling bitch!”
Ah good ol’ parents. Constantly reminding me that my input is not welcome. They are doing the best they can and if that’s not good enough for me I can find some other parents.
That works for parents because other parents as good as my parents (hi mom I’m on the internet!) are hard to come by. But when other companies are more than happy to take your business this may not be the best policy when dealing with complaints. More importantly: how will you ever improve if you don’t know what you are doing wrong?
| Book: | A Complaint is a Gift |
| Author: | Barlow and Moller |
| Binary Review: | 1 |
A Complaint is a Gift delves a bit into the psychology of giving and receiving complaints. People generally don’t like receiving complaints because they handle the complaint poorly - they view it as a personal attack. People generally don’t complain because they have been discouraged from complaining. Mishandling and discouraging complainers will eventually lead to no complaints. Hooray, everyone is happy! Note quite. More like: everyone is gone.
It takes a lot more effort to complain than to do nothing. When someone complains they are going out of their way to let you know how you can make your customers happier. What a gift! No doubt you have spent countless hours trying to get inside the head of your customers and now one of them is telling you what they think! Resist the urge put them in a queue for a few hours, pass the buck, explain how it’s beyond your control, make empty promises and then tell them to get stuffed.
“Shane!”, I hear the cries from across the world wide web, “what the hell do I do?”. Start with the eight-step gift formula:
- Say “thanks”
- Explain why you appreciate feedback
- Apologise for the mistake (be specific!)
- Promise to do something about the problem
- Ask for necessary information
- Correct the mistake
- Check customer satisfaction
- Prevent future mistakes
Note the (be specific!) above. Nothing pisses me off more than getting a letter like this:
Dear Customer,
We apologise for the inconvenience.
Kind regards,
Customer Service Rep 1
Try to care about your customer and understand where they are coming from. You have been given the opportunity to impress them with your complaint handling skills and turn them into a more loyal customer, so surprise them with your overflowing waterfall of gratitude and compassion (wtf?). I came across this great example in my inbox:
Dear Shane,
Thanks for your feedback. Your comments help us provide better service for everyone and that is important. Please accept my apologies for misleading you in our e-mail marketing campaign. Our expected growth rate of 4″ is perhaps a bit ambitious and I understand your disappointment when you fell short of the mark. I have dispatched an extra 4″ treatment to your delivery address free of charge and have modified our ad copy so that no one else is mislead. Are you happy with this course of action?
I will be in contact in a week to ensure your satisfaction but in the meantime is there anything else I can help you with?
Bigger is better,
Itch Eduardo
It might take a bit of getting used to but learning to accept complaints as gifts is a great habit to get into. You will benefit from a greater understanding of your customers and you will make your customers happier in the process. If you have any complaints about this post please feel free to leave a comment or use the giant feedback button on the right of the screen.
Some posts you might like:
Book review: Getting Real
How to kill the golden goose