Your Most Unhappy Customers Are Your Greatest Source of Learning
This was one of Bill
Gates’ observations, and it resonated with me for a number of reasons.
Human beings naturally avoid pain, so when we get a customer
complaint, our natural reaction is to go on the defensive. It’s called the “fight or flight” reaction
referring to man’s early time on earth when he had to either run away from
danger or face it if he had no choice.
II’ve worked with managers whose strategy in these situations
was to find some way of making it the customer’s fault that something had gone
wrong. In many cases, there may well be
contributing factors on the customer’s side that resulted in things unfolding in
the way they did.
We have three choices when faced with complaints:
- Ignore them (some organisations have a reputation for this);
- Fight back (same applies);
- Sort out the problem and learn from the experience.
Complaints are good – they mean our customers like our product
or service and want us to put something right.
It’s the ones who leave without saying anything (except to their friends,
maybe costing us future business) that we need to worry about. “No news” is not necessarily “good news” in
this case.
A complaint is free
information that something is wrong.
There is no such thing as a “fool proof process”. We can never account for the reactions of our
fellow humans. What I understand by, for
example, the colour “grey” may be “light grey” or “mist” or “smoke” to someone
else. I recently saw an instruction to
customers to click on a “teal” coloured button in a website. If I don't know what “teal” looks like or am
colour blind, this instruction is of little use. Whose fault is it if something goes wrong?
When customers complain, we can learn how to improve our
processes, products, website, training and more. A complaint may also be an indication that
fraudulent activity may be taking place.
If we see the number of complaints about a particular product, service or
person rising, we know where to take action.
Businesses rely on customers to make a living. No customers, no money, no business.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling
posted by William Martin @ 09:24
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