Learn to Love Complaining Clients

You'll face moments of truth every day of your life. You'll make decisions and take the consequences. The consequences can be good, they can be bad, but they are there for every action you take. Moments of truth can have a profound effect on your business, and complaints have enormous significance, so we'll consider client complaints in this chapter.

It's odd, but not one of the businesses I've canvassed over the years has a set policy for dealing with complaints -- not a single one. The usual response I gained was that the business would deal with complaints as they came in, in a case-by-case manner. Some business owners simply replied, "We don't receive many complaints."

They don't? It's no great wonder! Just look at these statistics:

• 4% of dissatisfied clients complain
• 91% of dissatisfied clients won't do business with you again
• 80% of dissatisfied clients tell ten people
• 20% of dissatisfied clients tell 20 people ("Consumer Complaint Handling in America: An Update Study," Technical Assistance Research Program, White House Office of Consumer Affairs (Washington DC, 1986).)

Think about these figures. If your business receives four complaints per year, you've probably had 100 dissatisfied clients. If you've had 100 dissatisfied clients, they've told 1,200 people that your product or service is poor!

The actions you take when your client complains can have a significant impact on your business. The right response can result in increased client loyalty, a better chance that you'll make a repeat sale, and boosted referral business. However, handle client complaints in the wrong way, and you might as well set money on fire. Learn to love clients who complain -- they're giving you a wonderful opportunity to grow your business. In fact, go out and dig up as many complaints as you possibly can: those complaining clients are gold!

We'll also provide a step-by-step guide to dealing with complaints. You can't go wrong when you have a sensible, well-planned strategy for addressing any complaints that clients make.

No business is perfect. Mistakes will be made, errors will occur. The question is: what will you do when complaints are made? For the answers, read on -- but first, make sure you download this chapter for reference offline!

Loving Complaining Clients

Complaining clients can be a great asset to you as you build your business. Complaining clients will do more for you than just about any other clients.

Up until now, you may have looked upon complaining clients as a complete nuisance. They're never happy; they're never satisfied; they should learn to appreciate you more. If that sounds like you, then lose the attitude! To build a successful and profitable business, you must come to appreciate complaints.

Complaining clients tell you where you're going wrong. They're the ones at the front line, testing out your service. They're the ones who, handled the right way, will become your most loyal clients. Seeking out and identifying client complaints is one of the most profitable activities in which a business can engage. When clients complain, they're actually giving you an opportunity to keep their business -- business you'd otherwise have lost, since the vast majority of dissatisfied clients will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor on the spot.

That's the beauty of complaints: if you deal with them properly, and actively seek and welcome complaints, then word quickly travels. Clients will soon feel more comfortable about making complaints, which gives you the opportunity to reduce the number of dissatisfied clients, keep their business, strengthen the relationship, and exceed their expectations.

Fixing it Quick

Providing a swift resolution to complaints can have the wonderful effect of increasing client loyalty beyond the level that would have been achieved had the problem never occurred. Why? The client remembers that extra touch that you provided to resolve the situation quickly, and exceed their expectations.

As we've discussed, making a purchase carries a perceived risk. Your clients might be asking themselves:

• "Will I get good value?"
• "Will he run off with my deposit?"
• "Will she give me what I want?"

These are three fairly common concerns of people who are in the market for a web site. But eventually, the prospects take the risk and buy from you. Excellent! Now, imagine that something goes wrong. This is not so great. The clients complain to you, feeling a little anxious that they haven't received what they paid for, and you fix it. Excellence restored!

Now, you may be thinking that you've simply resolved a complaint; what you've really done is reduce those clients' perceived risk in buying from you. They now know that if they buy from you, they'll receive what they paid for. Importantly, they know that if there is the slightest problem, you'll fix it without delay. As such, they'll be more likely to buy from you again.

The lower the perceived risk, the more likely clients are to buy from you. As I've mentioned, my business offers a no-hassle, 100% money-back guarantee. We do that for a couple of reasons: it reduces the perceived risk for someone who's thinking of buying our services, and ensures that our clients receive exactly what they paid for. After all, if we don't give them what they paid for, we shouldn't be paid. Simple!

Considering the Cost of a Good Complaint

Remember, the more complaints you hear about, the more complaints you can effectively address.

A complaint means you have the chance to generate more business from these clients that you wouldn't have otherwise received. The more complaints you hear about and deal with, the fewer dissatisfied clients you'll have talking to friends and colleagues about their bad experience with your business.

Don't think of what it will cost to fix a complaint -- think of what it will cost if you don't fix it.

Providing Distinctive Service

I'm a big advocate of making your business distinctive. You'll remember that we talked about building your own competitive edge in Chapter 7, Developing your Unique Advantage, and we saw how great service can really set you apart from the rest in Chapter 9, Providing Excellent Client Service. We saw that it's crucial to make your business unique so that people hear about it -- after all, people can buy your service only if they're aware of it. Be known for unique things that are positive things.

Complaints are just another area of your business in which you can leverage your competitive advantage by providing excellent service. If you go out searching for those complaints, you'll be fairly unique. If you provide a 100% money-back guarantee on your service, you could well be unique. If you deal with complaints in a fair and rapid manner, you'll definitely be unique!

Most people believe they receive value for money when they buy a product. There isn't really much scope to move on that; the prices are well documented, and it's easy to compare products to products and prices to prices. Measuring value is difficult when the product is intangible, so the situation with services is very different. People are far more likely to be discontent with the value for money they receive, as it's much harder to measure value for money when you're talking about a service. Let's say you charge $150 for a one-hour consultation with a client, while I charge $50. We both sit for an hour and talk with the client. Is your value three times mine? I have no idea, you have no idea, and in reality, the client has no idea. The only measurement the client can make here is a perception of value for money.

As we've already discussed, an enormous range of factors will influence that perception.

• Your voice accounts for 38% of the impression you make on people.
• How you look determines 55%.
• Only 7% of the impression you make depends on what you say. (Albert Mehrabian, Silent Messages (Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1971).)

Let's apply these statistics to our value-for-money comparison. If you sound better than me, the perception that you offer better value for money will hold true!

Just how important is distinctive service? Consider this Gallup Poll finding: 83% of those people surveyed identified their number-one reason for deciding not to return to a restaurant as poor service. Not the food; not the price: the service. Likewise, a Washington Post survey found that almost half of all shoppers believe service is mediocre and becoming worse. Other research suggests that more than 40% of consumers experiencing problems are unhappy with the action taken to resolve their complaints.

There's no substitute for service. Many businesses today try to make up for poor service with lower prices, but quality is the compelling feature you need to project in order to survive and be profitable. If you provide quality, you can charge more. If you charge more, you'll be more profitable. If you're more profitable, you'll have the resources to allocate to ensuring quality stays high. That's the cycle you need to jump into, because there's nothing more difficult than struggling to pay your bills and trying to generate new business. You don't have money for those ads or that mailout or that pay-per-click campaign. Generate some momentum in your business in terms of cashflow, and you'll find business so much easier as you'll have the time and energy to attract new clients.

Quality control of a product is easy. Typically, there is a set of standards to which the product must adhere, and if it does so, it meets the quality standards. Simple. The quality of a service is a little harder to define. For a start, a service doesn't exist until you provide it. The client's perception of that service is the only real measurement. You need that feedback to be able to ascertain the quality of your service, and how you can apply it to the next opportunity.

Your challenge is to create a distinctive level of service. Don't aspire to be like the others -- you're better than them!

Dealing with Complaints

Now, your natural reaction might be to blow off complaints. You might feel defensive, maybe even hurt, when a client you like complains. You'll probably feel that the complaint is an unjustified slight on you personally.

Get over it! Any complaint from a client is a 100% bona fide, major issue for them. Their perception is your reality. They have a problem; you have to fix it. Don't belittle it or treat it as inconsequential: treat the complaint and the complainant as they deserve.

The fact that your feelings are hurt doesn't matter. These are aggrieved clients -- whether or not you agree with them is irrelevant. What you need to do to ensure your business survival is to deal with the complaint quickly and in the very best of humor. After all, they're doing you a favor, indirect though it is -- they're giving you a chance to rectify the situation before they go off and tell 1,200 people about it, and they're presenting you with a tool for the continuous improvement of your business!