Look For Praise As Well As Complaints

Some time ago, I wrote an entry entitled, “Encourage Your Customers to Complain.” In it, I encouraged you to get your dissatisfied customers to make their complaints known, since customers with a complaint who don’t voice it are far more likely to leave you than those who do.

Customer complaints are also an opportunity to show your clients what you can really do and that you stand behind your products and services; something that will really separate you from the competition.

However, a recent experience has helped me realize that while it is still necessary to encourage customers and clients to voice their complaints, this can skew your decisions towards a vocal minority while ignoring the majority of people who are more than satisfied with what you’re doing.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking to a customer service rep at Southwest Airlines to book two frequent flier tickets. One of the things I’ve always liked about Southwest’s frequent flier programis it was first come, first serve; they didn’t limit the amount of award tickets per flight.

But, at the beginning of 2006 they changed their policy. They now hold a limited amount of seats per flight for award tickets, but to balance it out they eliminated all blackout dates.

I asked the Customer Service Rep why they would do that, since I always felt their first come, first serve policy was so fantastic (especially since no other airline does it), while the limited amount of blackout dates never seemed to be a problem.

She said, “We received a lot of complaints from customers regarding the blackout dates.” I said, “Sure, but the rest of us, who were happy with the way things were and are the vast majority, weren’t about to call up and say, we love what you’re doing, keep doing it.”

While it’s a well known fact that “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” there’s also the danger of a letting a small but vocal minority affect policy change in your company simply because they’re the only ones speaking up.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still believe in encouraging customers and clients to complain; it’s the best opportunity you have of turning a dissatisfied client into a customer-for-life. But when you allow the complainers to affect policies and procedures that the vast majority of your clients are happy with, you’re going to open a whole new can of worms.

So, what’s the solution? First off, don’t stop looking for those complaints and suggestions, but don’t forget to keep in touch with the satisfied customers too. It’s good to find out what you’re doing wrong, but it’s just as good to know what you’re doing right.