“You screwed up big time.”
If that sentence fails to send a shiver down your spine, either you are not human, you are not listening—or you are a brilliant and savvy businessperson.
On an emotional level, nobody likes criticism. We all prefer to see ourselves as ever-so-competent and applause-worthy, so criticism hurts our morale. From the first time Mom blew her top at the gorgeous and creative Technicolor blob of crayons you melted in the toaster, you’ve hated the sound of human disapproval.
Get over it.
Sure, a note from a happy customer can add to your joy at work. But compliments, as yummy as they feel, are shiny brass beads. Complaints, on the other hand, are 24-carat gold.
Every complaint you receive is a gift because each reveals nasty realities that would otherwise remain hidden. The key word in that sentence is “realities.” Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away.
Suppose you had a tiny little ignorable tumor in your head. Would you rather find it and deal with it—or whistle your oblivious way to an early demise?
Complaints, my friends, are the CAT scans of the business world. Sure, it’s more fun to look at your darling face in the mirror, day after day, but knowing about a problem (or what I prefer to call an opportunity) lurking under that pretty surface can literally save your life—or the life of your business.
The reason is clear: only 4 percent of those who have complaints actually voice those complaints, meaning 96 percent of your dissatisfied customers will not bother to let you know. Put another way, every complaint you hear has twenty-four silent friends. All of them are probably just as ticked off, but they will dump you without leaving so much as a Dear John.
The complainer has done you an enormous favor, a favor worthy of a bouquet of flowers and a big wet smooch. By breaking the silence, she has given you a fighting chance at self-improvement, an opportunity to find and fix the problem before the complaint spreads unchecked to other customers and potential customers. Without her, you may very well have found yourself wondering why hard-earned accounts were vanishing like the ice cubes in Satan’s iced tea.
It’s critical to Create a Complain Response Plan. The goal is NOT just to placate the complainer—that won’t reach the Silent 24. Instead:
- Assess the opportunity and take action to change the core system that created it in the first place
- Learn what you can from the problem to avoid duplicating it in the future
- Reward the complainer in no uncertain terms.
For various legal and ethical reasons, though, you might want to skip the big wet smooch.