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An issue recently surfaced in an online professional group I belong to.
A member was complaining that there were no responses to a discussion he had started. He felt that, due to the nature of the group in general and his topic in particular, there should have been no shortages of replies. Once the complaint had been posted, the replies started coming in fast and furiously, mine included. It made me wonder if a complaint generates more interest, empathy, and ultimately results than simple praise.
Organizations are frequently geared towards handling problematic issues, and customer complaints are key among these. We know that one unhappy customer will tell all their acquaintances about their poor experience, and they again will tell their friend. A failure chain of gigantic proportions has just been created. As such, we want our customers happy and satisfied with the ultimate goal of creating repeat customers.
How then do we treat customers who sing our praises? Do we reply to a message of good service or a great product, or do we simply file it away with a self satisfied smile of our face? Do we reward the happy customer with a complimentary product or a discount coupon, and do we communicate the customer's insights to the rest of the organization?
We know what we are learning from a complaint and can often take concrete steps towards resolving the issue. When praise is received, are we geared to view it as an equally valuable learning experience?
Who then, do we value the most, the complaining customer or the satisfied one? Who should we take the greatest effort in satisfying? Are we rewarding the right customer?
What are your thoughts?
The story about the current psychological understanding of this issue is long and complicated, but short and sweet: General wisdom and outdated (ca. 1930) psychological theory is that rewards lead to an increase in behavior, whereas punishment leads to a decline in behavior. Eighty years of research shows that the story is a bit more complicated than that.
ReplyDeleteWe are, in general, made to economize our behavior. This means that we work hard to avoid problems, and not nearly as much to achieve success. Problems are _there_, _now_, and _must be solved_, whereas success is in the future, and consequently not rewarding until it has been achieved.
We react to complaints because complaints set us in a mood that says that there is a problem that must be solved. Complaints, then, are powerful.
Most people are not good at spreadning good news, praise and recognition. Sucess means that a problem is solved. There is no more to be done, then. Except giving credit and spreading the word – but who has time for that when there are always more problems to be solved?
Thanks to Peter for pointing us to this interesting and complex issue.
This fact can have catastrophic consequences:
ReplyDeleteWhen a new VP for corporate planning in a global corporation analyzed the 5 year consolidated plans of all business segments, he saw that those who lost money planned to increase the volume and those who make a nice profit just to keep it there.
When I was asked to comment on this, I spontanousely said it was due to managerial overexposure to problem areas and the simple belief that growing volume would fix this over time.
In addition, these plans delegated the issue to the sales subsidiaries around the world, fare away from the planning business segment owners. The result was a consolidated plan to march towards the cliff.
This was 40 years ago and that corporation did go to the cliff ...
Terje Wølner-Hanssen
Unfortunately complains receive more attention than compliments, so normally, those who complain receive more of our time and efforts than those who not, but in my opinion this is wrong.
ReplyDeleteNormally we do not have a holistic view of our customers, clients and partners so we do not prize a happy client, we just think that he is happy because we are good, and as they happy and do not complain they will stay with us. But if you look on a normal business you will find that perhaps there will be less than 5% of unhappy clients, this means that 95% are happy or satisfied with us. So our main improvements efforts will go to just a minimum part of our customers, and this is not a good way to act if we want to stay in business.
I thing that we should learn to prize and attend all our clients as equally as possible , and think that if someone is satisfied with our company, does not mean that they will remain with the same perception forever, so it is important to establish a system that prizes all of our clients and value their loyalty, make this part of our culture.
It’s just like going to a restaurant where we get good food, nice service and reasonable prices, we will be even happier if the owner/manager pass by our table and asks if everything is ok, remember our names, and occasionally offer us and invitation.