Customer complaints! We've all been there - we're in a restaurant or store and we have a complaint about something. What do you do about it? A good many people just suck it up and leave. Others say something. Which customer do you prefer? Does your business make customers jump through several hoops to voice a complaint. Do they have to fill out a long form? Do you make them call a 1-800 number or go to a special webpage?
Recent research found something interesting about how people complain and their impact on doing business with you. It found that people who said nothing were typically not self-confident. If it was a restaurant situation, they felt uncomfortable about making the friends at their table uncomfortable as well. They sucked it up and left. The down side was the majority of this group never come back.
On the other hand, folks who had no problem voicing their dissatisfaction continued to do business with the guilty party. They saw the act of complaining as therapeutic.
These results prove that you should go out of your way to make it as easy as possible to accommodate customer complaints. How you handle the situation makes them into your best customers, and this builds a strong brand in their eyes.
