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A Complaint Is a Gift Complaints Are Definitely Not Seen as Gifts! Claus Møller and I first wrote A Complaint Is a Gift (1996, publisher Berrett-Koehler) in 1996. TMI talked about the idea to our clients for at least four years prior to that. Even today, every time we talk to groups around the world, they immediately grasp the significance of the concept that complaints are a benefit, not a problem. Yet, we
continue to run across statements such as the one from Powergen, a
The emphasis is on the complaints, rather than the customer service. Actually, we believe that a robust relationship with customers should involve hearing all types of complaints. Companies might even be an increase in complaints if customer service is truly paramount in mind. We understand that company executives who make these types of comments are referring to complaints that rise through the system and become public knowledge. We understand why a company would want to reduce the number of those types of complaints. Unfortunately, a blanket statement of working to achieve the lowest levels of complaints in the industry sends a distinct message to staff. Do anything to reduce complaints. It's possible that such a goal could result in worse customer relationships, even though the number of complaints might be reduced. Only the bottom line would know. Certainly reading about the number of complaints doesn't tell one much about the quality of customer relationships. Janelle
Barlow, Co-author
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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