It's not easy to complain in most situations. Complaining is seen to have such a negative connotation, and it feels particularly unseemly over the holidays. "Where is your good cheer?" someone might complain about your complaints!

The key to complaining over the holidays is to be extra gentle as you deliver a complaint "gift" to someone. Help those clerks out who are getting paid low wages to stand on their feet all day long to help a crowded, noisy, and sometime ungrateful public.

But don't hold back your complaints! We'll never learn if you don't deliver them. Here are some approaches you can try to keep the good will of those around you, and yet get your feedback to the right people in the organization.

1) Thank the person for their help. Tell them how much you appreicate how hard they are working this holiday season. And also suggest that in this spirit you want to provide a bit of feedback. Then tell them, with a smile on your face.

2) Ask the person who is helping that you have some feedback for the company and you would like to make sure it gets to the managerial level that can do something about it. Ask the clerk if they are the right person for you to talk with, or if you should talk with a manager. Or ask the person if you should put your feedback in writing.

3) Tell the person you are talking with that you did a similar job in your life, and you always appreciated knowing how to make the customers happier. And in this spirit, you want to tell them how they can do this. 

In other words, make it easy for the person, frequently young and inexperienced, to keep listening to you. 

Only in this way can we maintain holiday cheer while at the same time continuing to help our providers get better at serving us!

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!
_#34	Seeking Out Complaints
_#35	If They Complain, Why Not Sue Them!
_#36	"Sorry for Any Inconvenience Caused"
_#37	Don't Back Away When Someone Complains To You
_#38	The Right Person
_#39	Complaining is Becoming Popular in Japan

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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