Page 20 - A Complaint is a Gift Excerpt

part one

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Complaints

Lifeline to the Customer

hen customers feel dissatisfi ed with products and services,
they have two options: they can say something or they can
Wwalk away. If they walk away, they give organizations virtually
no opportunity to fi x their dissatisfaction. Complaining customers are
still talking with us, giving us an opportunity to recapture their inter-
est 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 gift s, we can more read-
ily learn from diffi cult 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 com-
pany’s quality and service recovery programs. Th is is no small gift !
In order to bett er understand complaining customers, part I of this
book explores the mind of the complaining customer. With understand-
ing comes acceptance. We must welcome these complaining and admit-
tedly diffi cult customers at times and make them want to come to us
with their feedback instead of trashing us behind our backs.

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