Learn to love your complaints

Posted: 14th August 2014

If you want to get ‘up close’ to your firm’s culture, then look no further than your complaints team and take a visit.

Meet the people, have a good look at your root cause analysis data and if it’s doing its job properly it will tell you a great deal about your organisation’s ‘tone from the top’ and how that is working for and against your customers.

Rather than spending vast amounts of your marketing budget on expensive customer surveys, turn your attention to your major root cause categories. They will unveil a wealth of information about your products, pricing, staff and services.

In such a review one FS firm could attribute 76% of its complaints directly to staff related issues and therefore could be prevented. Poor service, misleading or inaccurate information, admin mistakes or missed deadlines were all at the root cause and a programme was developed to half the number over 12 months. In addition, in today’s savvy world, 25% of customers who have a negative experience share their thoughts via social media! That’s not a league table anyone wants to be at the top of. (Source: Which?)

High profile visits to your complaints team also boosts morale and says ‘we care’, which also emphasises the holy grail of customer centricity that we are all in pursuit of.

So why delay? Organise at least one executive visit a month and fall in love with your unhappy customers. They know where your bodies are buried and have taken the time to tell you. So why not dig them up and cure them at the root cause – that is your gift and privilege!