"Why can't they just get to the point?"
 "I'm not interested in knowing how they feel. Why can't they simply tell me what went wrong and let me fix it for them. Everyone would save time."
 "They exaggerate—all the time!"
 "Some of them are so rude. You'd think we did this stuff to them on purpose."

      In fact, I recently heard someone in a program I conducted ask, "How can we teach our customers to not be such nasty complainers?"

      In all of these comments you can hear an underlying message: "If the customer would just ... then I would ..." In effect, such an attitude places the burden for receiving quality care back on to the customer. And that's not where it belongs. It belongs on the shoulders of the service providers, regardless of the attitudes, size, shape, speed, noise or whatever customers bring with them.

      It might be good advice to the customers to "shape up," so they can manipulate the system of customer care more to their advantage, and I think that many customers recognize this. However, there is a danger in this attitude. This attitude teaches service providers that they should give good service to customers who are "good," and it doesn't matter what they give to "bad" customers.

      I have received good service from many a service representative because, "I was so cooperative, unlike that group of complaining customers sitting over there." I will frequently cooperate with service providers because I know I will probably receive better service, but if you think about what organizations are attempting to achieve in their businesses, this approach sends the wrong message. The message is that the customer has to perform a certain way to get good service. That's backward!

      We say that the "squeaky wheel gets the grease." This means that the noisy, abusive complaining customer will get what they want just because the service provider wants to get rid of them. Sometimes this happens, but my experience is that this "squeaky wheel" pay a price down the road. They can easily be labeled as a nasty customer and receive treatment befitting a nasty person. They be punished for their rudeness and impatience.

      This attitude makes it more likely that organizations will hear even less from their dissatisfied customers. Customers will play the game that the bad service really wasn't all that bad; they will commiserate with the service provider, and the organization will never hear of the discontent that exists. Customers go along with this system because they know it is in their best interests to do so.

      A Complaint Is a Gift philosophy says: don't attempt to convert your customers. Let them be who they are. Concentrate on changing your own behavior and attitude, and let the customers respond to that. Your organization and you will win from this philosophy.
 

Janelle Barlow, Ph.D.
Coauthor, A Complaint Is a Gift
 
 

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages: 
 

#1	Overselling Service
#2	Not Listening to Complaints
#3	Plastic Chicken
#4	Complaints You Can Do Nothing About
#5	A+ Complaint Handling
#6	Beware! Others are Watching You
#7	At Least Keep Talking!
#8	Let Customers Know You'll Tell Someone
#9	If You're Going to Apologize, Then Mean It
#10	Keep Front-life Staff Well Informed
#11	Don't Set Goals to Reduce Complaints
#12	Products Used During Special Events
#13	Best Practices of Complaint-friendly Organizations
#14	Complaints About Mother Nature!
#15	Socially Offensive Situations
#16	A Complaint Is a Gift in Action
#17	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, I
#18	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, II
#19	Creating an Internal Service Culture
#20	When Your Customers are Industrial Buyers

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

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