I recently flew on United Airlines from London to Washington, D.C. In the middle of the flight a lovely representative of UA came up to me to ask how my flight was going. She said that she wanted to make sure that I had a chance to speak out if there was anything that was bothering me.

In the process of her beginning our conversation this way, we had a fruitful discussion. She got to hear some of my opinions about United Airlines, and I got to see a demonstration of highly effective proactive complaint gathering.

Since I have an intense interest in complaints (I'm the coauthor of A Complaint Is a Gift!), our conversation ranged far past a representative of an airline talking with a customer. I got to learn that United has a substantial number of people who basically talk with customers, find out what is happening with them, and giving them a chance to express themselves.

This is a most laudable approach for an organization the size of UA. I fly almost 200,000 miles a year on United, and I have yet to talk with one of these agents, but the impact was significant and has only deepened my loyalty to United. Because the woman was so open and friendly, I felt comfortable discussing the problems I have faced and sharing my opinions about what is happening in air travel. But mostly, I was listened to by a representative of a company to whom I make substantial revenue contributions.

Will changes occur in United? It's impossible to say. But from a marketing standpoint, UA is making a clever investment in personnel who fly the friendly skies and simply listen to customers. The people who perform these functions must have a very palpable feeling for airline passengers. After all, they listen to them day in and day out. I hope that United listens to them!

When the flight ended, the woman approached me again and thanked me for my conversation. I thanked her, and honestly believe that the benefit was mine. That's very nice, and demonstrates a point I have long made: we don't need to be afraid of feedback/complaints. It's so much better to have your customers tell you about their woes than to have them tell the marketplace. And your customers will probably walk away from such an encounter with stronger feelings of commitment to your organization.
 
 

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!
_#32	Eliminating Blame
_#33	Friendliness Keeps Them Coming Back!

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

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