One thing that absolutely infuriates customers is being blamed for things that they did not know about or didn't have anything to do with. First, the customer feels victimized by the service failure, and then is blamed on top of that. It feels grossly unfair to customers.

Here are the some of the comments I have personally heard, either directed at me, or to some helpless customers in the firing range of a less than professional service provider. These remarks include the following:
 

• You know if you had just come earlier, we could have helped you. (How is the customer supposed to know something like this?)

• If you treat the equipment like this (some minor adjustment that the customer couldn't possibly know about), it always breaks.

• Everyone knows this. (Obviously, not everyone, because a customer is standing right there who doesn't know.)

• Did you read the instructions, first? (The implication here is that only an idiot wouldn't have first read the instructions. Actually, instructions are generally so poorly written, that most people have a practice of reading none of them.)

If customers don't have adequate background or knowledge to understand or use your products or services, don't blame them. Fix the situation.

Listen to your complaining customers, and if you hear a number of them coming to you with avoidable problems, it's time to fix your information sharing. Things that be obvious to the manufacturer not be obvious to everyone else.

But above all, avoid blaming your customers. Research suggests that when you do this, it doesn't matter how you fix their problems, they'll still walk away dissatisfied. And that's good information to have!
 
 

Janelle Barlow, Coauthor
A Complaint Is a Gift
Emotional Value
 
 
 

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
#21	Customers Who are Poor Complainers
#22	Complaints That are Difficult to Talk About
#23	Do You Mistreat Your Customers?
#24	Fairness: Treatment of Staff
#25	Expectations and Complaints
#26	Successful Toll-free Experiences
#27	Small Companies and Service
#28	A Banking Customer Strikes Back
#29	Complaints in the Hospitality Business
#30	Customers Be More Cynical
#31	Above All, Communicate When Things Go Wrong!

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: 

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