How many customer complaints do you get? Not many? Everything must be working well then mustn’t it? Well, don’t bank on that!
According to a new report by freedeliveryland, 80% of customers are too polite to complain! Apparently, restaurant food, faulty electrical products and poor shop service are the most common cause of complaints, but the vast majority don’t actually say anything!
In other words, just because you’re not getting complaints that doesn’t mean you haven’t got a problem! Customers may be unhappy, but they might not be telling you! (You can be sure, by the way, that they are not necessarily too polite to tell other people!)
In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I think really customer focussed businesses get more complaints than their competitors! Why? Because they look and ask for them! Crucially, they empower their people to respond and do something with them! They make sure that they are equipped with the resources and skills to ‘Deal With Disappointment’.
So, why not ask your customers (or get your people to ask them) what they think?
Rather than marking you out of 10, we find a great question to ask is ‘Are You COMPLETELY Happy’? (Yes / No answer only please!) and then follow this up with ‘WHY / WHY NOT? It’s a tough one to ask, but it’s a great way of really finding out what your customers think.
However, if you do ask your customers what they really think, be aware that you are raising their expectations by asking their opinion. Not being able to deal with what they say back is likely to create more ‘Disappointment’!
So, Go on….Don’t Be Polite – Get Asking, Get Listening and Get Doing Something as a result!
