When a customer complains all kinds of good things are probably happening…you may just not see it that way. Here are a few reasons why you should be celebrating these complaints instead of commiserating over them…
- It tells you they are engaged…they actually care about you and the experience you are providing…they have said, “I care about you enough to take the time to complain”…that is an awesome thing
- They are giving you feedback on something that is “broken” or isn’t working the way you designed it to work…before potentially thousands of other customers find it as well…you have a chance to make some changes and quickly
- They are telling you they are the “wrong customer”…the one you didn’t design your experience around and so they don’t like it…they need to leave and you need to fire them and stay focused on the customers your experience is designed to serve with a WOW
- There may be something in your processes that isn’t working right and is causing a “domino effect” where the problem continues to cascade from bad to worse…they are essentially acting as part of your team to identify the root cause in the process and giving you insights on how to fix it…for everyone
- There will constantly be ways to improve…even with the best experiences…consider them to be a part of your “continuous improvement team” and offering you insights…for free…since they aren’t being paid like an employee…and their feedback might actually be better than the employees since they are worried about losing their jobs if they point out flaws
So the next time you sit in a meeting with your leadership team and tell them you want to be at a point of zero complaints, you’re missing a HUGE OPPORTUNITY that many of your competitors don’t get.
The WORST THING a company can have is a group of customers that aren’t engaged and don’t care enough to complain. This means they are disengaged and don’t care…they are just there because there probably isn’t a better deal for them yet or if there was, they would leave and go somewhere else.
A silent customer is a dangerous customer to your company…you want their feedback…you want their input…you want their insights on how to make their life even better…YOU WANT THEIR COMPLAINTS. When you get them, congratulate your team on getting real time feedback that your competitors probably aren’t getting. This is awesome news!
Now the key question to answer…are you going to make the changes so your customer sees you truly care about their feedback or just ignore it and chalk it up to just another irritating customer? If they are your “ideal customer” segment, making the changes almost guarantees you two things…
- They will continue to give you complaints…feedback…this is awesome
- They are still engaged and most likely not looking to leave… this is awesome as well…unless they don’t see anything happening
If they aren’t your ideal customer, then apologize and politely let them know that there might be other places that would be better for them to engage with…and then give them suggestions (your competitors are ideal since you don’t want them anyway, let them deal with them) then they feel you are helping them move along. And in the end you are helping yourself a ton by not trying to serve the wrong customer.
The takeaway for leaders is this…DON’T BE AFRAID OF COMPLAINTS…YOU AREN’T PERFECT…BUT YOU CAN KEEP TRYING TO BE…AND THIS IS WHAT YOUR CUSTOMER WANTS TO SEE AND EXPERIENCE. Keep the complaints coming and you’ll keep your best customers longer and more committed than ever to your company.
Great post Blaine. Customer feedback is truly like gold to be mined. What sort of formal processes can be put in place to routinely gather customer data? Companies like the Container Store and Rackspace gather massive amounts of customer data to evaluate and improve customer experience design. Fred Reicheld developed Net Promoter Score a dozen years ago. Is NPS an effective tool to listen to the voice of the customer?