December 28, 2009

Customer Complaints - Pain or Opportunity?

It all depends on how you look at it. Most organizations look at complaining customers as a ‘nessary evil’ and part of the job that needs to be done, but which is not looked upon with a great deal of delight. Customers complain, frontline employees try and explain the company’s position in hopes to appease the annoyed customer and the customer goes away either satisfied or even more angry.

BE DiFFERENT organizations, on the other hand, treat a complaining customer as first, a source of Customer Learning, and second, as a potential opportunity to recover and actually build customer loyalty.

I discussed the Practice of Customer Learning in a past blog and I cover it extensively in my book. It goes beyond traditional Market Research and is a continuous process of learning from customers what works and what doesn’t in your organization. CL focuses on every customer contact and seeks to drain as much information from the experience possible in order to enhance market performance.

A customer complaint is an excellent touch point from which to learn. It may not always be pleasant for an employee but it can provide rich information for you. Some companies treat complaint getting as a key strategic imperative, and honor those who do a great job at it. NORPAC Controls of Vancouver BC is a company which believes that great employees attract complaining customers. They measure the number of complaints each frontline person handles successfully and they recognize the best complaint getter. Interesting cultural philosophy. The company is very well known for its ‘Be the Customer Vision’.

A customer complaint could be a Service Recovery waiting to happen. If the complaint is the result of a company blunder, handling the complaint the BE DiFFERENT way might be the difference between you losing the customer forever and enhancing their loyalty to you. I have talked about the Recovery Practice before. It’s about fixing the problem and then doing the unexpected for the customer based on what you know about them. If you give ‘em what they DON’T expect, they will be dazzled and give you an ‘A’ for your efforts.

So stop talking about ‘complaints’ and start calling them Recovery Opportunities to get a DiFFERENT focus on how to deal with them. Develop the process to turn complaint handling into successful recoveries and train your people on how you want it done. Measure their performance and communicate it far and wide internally. Honor those that excel in doing it.

Cheers, Roy

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Customer Learning
Service Recovery
Serve Customers Don’t Service Them
The Four Steps to Dazzle Customers
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Kill Dumb Rules
Bend the Rules

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Posted 12.28.09 at 06:25 pm by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment