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

Sometimes service providers are placed in situations where they have to handle complaints that are socially offensive to them. I've watched this happen myself. Just recently, I overheard a woman seated in first class complain to a flight attendant about all the "third world" people she had had to sit with while in the waiting area before boarding the flight. "How disgusting," was her attitude. 

Probably the best way to handle these kinds of situations is to use a technique called the "fog." It's taught in Assertiveness classes. Basically, you make a statement that neither agrees nor disagrees with what you have just heard. This way, you don't have to compromise your own standards, and at the same time you don't have to "fight" your customer. 

Sometimes, however, customers go beyond mild social offensiveness. The following case was passed along to us on the Internet. We don't know if it is true, but it's a wonderful example of how a creative British Airways flight attendant handled such a situation. 

On a British Airways flight from Johannesburg, a middle-aged, well-off white South African lady found herself sitting next to a fine looking black gentleman. She called the cabin crew attendant over to complain about her seating. "What seems to be the problem, Madam?" asked the attendant. 

"Can't you see?" she snapped out loud, "You've sat me next to a Kaffir. I can't possibly sit next to this disgusting human. Find me another seat!" 

"Please calm down, Madam," the stewardess replied. "I believe the economy section is completely full today, but I'll go and check to see if we have any upgraded seats available in club or first class." 

The woman cocks a snooty look at the outraged black man beside her (not to mention many of the surrounding passengers.) A few minutes later the stewardess returns with the good news, which she delivers to the lady, who cannot help but look at the people around her with a smug and self-satisfied grin.

"Madam, as I suspected, economy is full. I've spoken to the cabin services director, and club is also full. However, we do have one seat in first class." 

Before the lady has a chance to answer, the stewardess continued: "Please realize, it is most extraordinary to make this kind of upgrade, however, and I had to get special permission from the captain. But, given the extreme circumstances, the captain felt that it was outrageous that someone should be forced to sit next such an obnoxious person." 

With that, she turned to the black man and said: "So if you'd like to get your things, sir, I have your first-class seat ready for you..." 

At which point, the surrounding passengers burst into a standing ovation while the man walked to the front of the plane. 

Well done, we think! 

 
Janelle M. Barlow, Ph.D.  
Coauthor, A Complaint Is a Gift, Using Customer Feedback as a Strategic Tool 
  

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages:  
#1  
    #2  
    #3  
    #4  
    #5  
    #6  
    #7  
    #8  
    #9  
  #10  
  #11  
  #12  
  #13  
  #14  
 

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 
 
fax: 702 939-1804 
 
email:  

Website designed by  
©2005, TMI US