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usually complain more than compliment. Listen to what the customer is saying. Make sense of it by
looking for themes. Are there consistent messages you are hearing from various customers? Where
do you see opportunities to develop? Don’t get overwhelmed by the negative comments. People who
have positive opinions speak up less. When you get a complaint that is justified, put a plan in place.
Work with the customer to identify the goal. Then monitor progress against that goal to ensure
resolution of the problem. Check in with the customer to see if they are satisfied with the solution.
Change your mental frame about customer complaints. Studies show that customers who complain
are still engaged, which means you still have a chance to turn them around. It’s the dissatisfied
customer who doesn’t complain that ends up going to the competition.

Want to learn more? Take a deep dive…
Di Fiore, A. (2011, November 30). How to get past your customers’ lies. Harvard Business Review
Blog Network.
Hall, A. (2013, May 17). Listening to customers yields success. Forbes.

Kalb, I. (2012, January 19). Here’s what happens when you don’t listen to your customers’
complaints. Business Insider.

Spiegelman, P. (2010, January 18). Connect with your customers. Entrepreneur.

5. Want to know why customers leave? Think of yourself as a dissatisfied customer. Write down
all of the unsatisfactory things that have happened to you as a customer during the past month.
Things like delays. Orders not right. Costs not as promised. Phone calls not returned. Cold food. Bad
service. Inattentive employees. Out-of-stock items. Are any of these things happening to your
customers? Then do a study of your lost customers. Find out what the three key problems were and
see how quickly you can eliminate 50% of the difficulties that caused them to depart. Study your
competitors’ foul-ups and see what you can do to both eliminate those and make your organization
more attractive. And keep at it. Make this an ongoing aspect of your customer focus. Make it your
business to understand what you’re not doing right for your customers and correct it. Apply that
learning to help you spot issues before they cause a problem.

6. Want to know why customers stay? Think of yourself as a satisfied customer. Write down all of
the satisfactory things that have happened to you as a customer during the past month. What pleased
you the most as a customer? Good value? On-time service? Courtesy? Returned phone calls? Are
any of your customers experiencing any of these satisfactory transactions with you and your
business? Study your successful customer transactions so they can be institutionalized. Then study
what your competitors do well and see what you can also do to improve customer service. Be a
learner. Constantly look to identify ways to enhance the level of quality and service your customers
are enjoying. The best customer is the customer you already have.

7. Looking for opportunities to see customer service in action? Play detective. Be a student of the
workflows and processes around you at airports, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, government
services, etc. What do you see? What do you hear? What are customers saying out of earshot of the
staff? How can you relate the service approaches in those industries to your own environment? What
processes could be adapted? As a customer, how would you design those things differently to make

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