PART ONE

Complaints
Lifeline to the Customer

When customers feel dissatisfied with products and services, they have two options: they can say something or they can walk away. If they walk away, they give organizations virtually no opportunity to fix their dissatisfaction. Complaining customers are still talking with us, giving us an opportunity to recapture their interest so they will be more likely to buy from us again. In the world of the modern Internet, word of mouth has grown from simple dinner-table conversation to a global shout at a banquet with thousands of diners. So as much as we might not like to receive negative feedback, customers who complain directly to us are giving us a gift.

If we shift our mind-set to see complaints as gifts, we can more readily learn from difficult situations. Customer complaints continue to be one of the most available and yet underutilized sources of consumer and market information; as such, they can become the foundation for a company’s quality and service recovery programs. This is no small gift!

In order to better understand complaining customers, part I of this book explores the mind of the complaining customer. With understanding comes acceptance. We must welcome these complaining and admittedly difficult customers at times and make them want to come to us with their feedback instead of trashing us behind our backs.