The Value of a Customer Complaint

Over at Small Business Boomers, Jim Norton’s tackling the issue of customer complaints. He flat out tells you that customer complaints are the best thing that could happen. Well, winning the lotto might be slightly more fun, but he’s got a point.

What’s important to take away from Jim’s post is this:

• Customer complaints are rare. Very few people ever complain to a vendor. Most people complain to friends, family, colleagues, and even total strangers. When people complaint to anyone other than you it’s bad news.
• People who do complain are giving you a chance to fix the problem. Fix it and you look like a superstar.

Jim follows up with some sound advice on how to accept, digest and process customer complaints. It sounds obvious when you read it, but having been in the position of listening to customers complain (more than a few times!) I can tell you it’d be a good idea to print out Jim’s thoughts and post them on your desk.

For startups, getting negative feedback is critical. It helps you iron out early details before it’s much harder to fix them. There’s nothing worse than finally launching your business after weeks/months of testing, trials, etc. only to find a bunch of new customers hate something about it. Going back to the drawing board when you should be standing on a mountaintop shouting as loud as you can (that’s an honest-to-goodness marketing technique, don’t ya know?!) is going to cost time and money. It’ll hurt your startup’s fragile reputation and if your fledgling brand is associated with negative feedback…ouch.

Having said that, you can’t please everyone all the time. People starting their first business often have a big problem with this; they want to please everyone fully, and they’re desperate for business. Trying to please everyone is a slippery slope…usually resulting in a face-full of mud.

To avoid clients that will complain excessively make sure you acquire those customers that are the best fit for your business. You need to know who your ideal client should be, target those clients and build your brand such that it will attract those clients. They might still complain, but at least they’ll be the people you want, and fixing their problems should be easier.

One of the worst situations is a client that’s not a good fit, who complains because of that. At some point you’ll have to tell that client, “I don’t think my product is a good fit for what you want to do. I would recommend trying X, Y or Z.” You can’t do a U-turn on your product (or service) for one customer, so there’s a point where you need to stick to your guns.

I also don’t think people should take negative feedback and complaining personally (although Jim thinks you should, if I’m reading his post correctly.) It’s going to cause your feathers to get ruffled (and I just preened mine!) and it will bring in an emotional element that doesn’t belong in what you’re trying to accomplish. Follow Jim’s advice but do it in such a way that you don’t take it personally; you’ll feel better because of it, and you’ll limit the risk of causing increased friction with the customer.