It is TMI's intention that each one of these examples will increase your personal understanding of how to improve your own complaint handling. 
 

We are once again reminded of how dangerous it is set goals to reduce the number of complaints you receive. It is advice that TMI program leaders have long given in speeches and seminars, and every once in awhile we hear confirmation of disasters that have occurred because a senior level executive is "sick and tired" of hearing all these complaints.  

Case in point. I just spoke with a representative from an insurance company who was in a Dallas audience. I had suggested to the group that they should never set targets to reduce complaints. The representative came up to me during a program break and related a perfect example. A senior manager had snapped at her company's branch representatives at a recent nationwide meeting. "I'm sick and tired of all these complaints," he said. "I want to see them reduced."  

That's a strong statement. And, as you might expect, he got what he wanted. But as the woman reported to me, she saw exactly how it was accomplished. Staff stopped answering their phones. Complaints were listed as compliments. In effect, communication with the customer stopped, but the senior executive got what he wanted: a reduction in complaints. Be careful what you ask for. You get it. She said to me, "You know. It is exactly as you predicted in your comments. It's embarrassing that we didn't see what would happen."  

I remember talking with the HR Vice President of a major hotel chain. He was interested in TMI's A Complaint Is a Gift program, but at the same time, he said that they had a goal to get it right the first time so complaint handling would be unnecessary. All we can say to that kind of wish is, Good Luck! When dealing with a complex product such as a hotel stay, there is virtually no way to get it totally right. And even if you got it totally right in terms of delivering what you promise to deliver, there are always good suggestions from customers as to what they would like that you don't currently offer. And those are complaints as well, and they need to be handled carefully to give customers the feeling that they are in partnership with you.  

I've seen front desk staff in hotels tear up my feedback forms after I announced that I had some problems during my stay at the hotel. (They thought I wasn't looking!) In fact, I have found that the only way to guarantee you will get a response from a hotel chain is to take the letter off property and mail it in to the corporate headquarters. Think about it. No hotel general manager wants to announce to corporate bosses that the hotel created problems for customers.  

This is such an important concept in the complaint handling field that it needs to be revisited over and over again. Perhaps every corporate office needs to put a big sign to that effect on their walls, so when anyone is tempted to suggest reducing complaints, they are reminded it will create more problems than any it solves.  
 

Janelle M. Barlow, Ph.D.  

Coauthor, A Complaint Is a Gift, Using Customer Feedback as a Strategic Tool 
  

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We invite you to submit your "best" examples by fax or e-mail. We won't print any company names with the "poor" examples, because we believe that every organization fails from time to time. We will give credit to companies delighting their customers. In the case of the "poor" examples, we'll comment on how we think this situation could have been handled better. If you want us to list your name, please tell us that is what you want to do.

 

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Training Program  

  A Complaint Is a Gift, The Book  

Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow

tel: 702 939-1800 
 
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