Welcome Mr. Complaint

Normal human tendency is to treat a customer complaint as ‘ something unwanted, but it is there, so let me deal with it”. When a complaint is made by a customer, he makes it with certain frustrations and anger, since he feels that he is deprived of certain values, which is due to him. So when we receive the complaint in a frustrating and angry tone, we tend to treat the same as ‘unwanted”, and at the same with the necessity to be dealt with in the interests of future business and also to prevent negative publicity.

So we try to pacify the customer, and ensure that the complaint is addressed, and sorted out so that the customer is satisfied. This is the normal way a complaint is dealt with.

But can we change our mindset differently, and welcome the customer complaint? Yes, welcome Mr. Complaint! The complaint is not a reflection on your product or service, as some times, something may always go wrong. It is the genuine feed back from your valued customer, who wants you to change and improve. If a customer makes an angry remark, it is not really because he is angry with you, but because he is interested in you and he is looking forward to an improvement in your process.
Every complaint is a feedback for your improvement. Hence, treat Mr. Complaint with due respect. Solving the immediate problem alone is not enough, unless you change your systems to ensure that the same mistake does not happen again. Solving the problem relieves you of your immediate mental tension, but it does not ensure that you will not be in the same situation, unless you modify your product or process that the same complaint does not repeat. You should also put in necessary monitoring process to make this happen.

So now you can rely on Mr. Complaint to improve your Product and process, as his feedback comes free of cost to you. It is like having a marketing consultant, who does not charge you any fee! Thank you Mr. Complaint and Welcome!

Dr. K. Venkatsubramanian
(Visiting Faculty, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Management and Research)
Dr. Venkat and Associates, Delhi.