Increase Customer Loyalty by Valuing Complaints

Alan J. Zell

complains and complainers

Kevin, You are 200% correct with your approach to complaints. Too bad that too many do not look it as a kiss on the cheek rather than a kiss on the other cheek.

There are two aspects to complaints that management does not take into consideration:

1. The complainer may not be the complainer, they may be the representative of someone else who has the complaint and the complainer is expected to come back with a satisfactory answer. Not answered satisfactorily, the business has two new “enemies” – the complainer and the person(s) with the complaint. The effort to “sell” a negative answer to the complaint may be cause more problems than just doing whatever is expected even if by doing it is costly.

2. That employees are customers of management and visa versa. So, when either receives a complaint from the other, it should be looked at as a positive thing and not the other way around. All complaints are, really, letting the recipient of the complaint that the complainer want to continue to do business with the recipient. So too, this is applicable to #1.

Since what is put forth as a complaint may not be the actual story. Complaining is a form of selling. . ... selling one’s dissatisfaction. However, most complainers, while they do not have good selling skills, try to put their sales-pitch in a positive light, there mostly is more than what is said. Many years ago, my client was a small city here in Oregon. One of their problems was that shortly after property tax notices were sent out, there was an onrush of complainers due to the tax increase. They came in so mad that they were ready to jump over the counter to get at the young woman behind the counter. I felt so sorry for her as her job was other than taking complaints but it was that door people came through.

My solution was to make some “complaint forms” with COMPLAINTS in 20 pit font at the top. My instructions were, as you suggested, to write down the complaint as it was being told – if she could write that fast which she couldn’t. My other instructions were, after the complainer had finished, to ask the customer to repeat the complaint so that she could make sure she had the right information and, if the complainer was still mad, ask to have it repeated again to make sure the information was correct.

What I knew, from having done this during my retailing days, each time the complaint was repeated new information came out and, often, the complainer began to feel sorry for the person, especially if she was a young woman, having to take the brunt of the complainer’s wrath. There were different results of using this method for handling complaints. One, was that the complaint was not as dire as first said. .Two, the complainer was, as stated above, not the real complainer nor was the first telling the real problem. Lastly, and I had not thought that this would happen, but others waiting to make a complaint, listening to what was going on made their compliant less harsh. What I didn’t learn until a few years had passed, that the mayor, while giving a talk, related the format and the results. This in turn, he told me, ended up their being less complaints about tax increases.

I have suggested this to other clients and where put to use, worked for them.

Alan
Alan J. Zell, Ambassador Of Selling, Attitudes for Selling
azell@aol.com www.sellingselling.com
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