How often do you talk about customer service?

How often do you talk about customer service?

Companies are constantly searching for new and interesting ways to improve customer service. Here’s a simple one that has flown under the radar:

Talk about customer service more often.

Pick up any book profiling a company that’s known for delivering outstanding customer service. You’ll see a consistent theme whether it’s Disney, Nordstrom, Ritz Carlton, Southwest Airlines, or Zappos. They all talk about customer service a lot. You have to be obsessive if you want to your people to consistently deliver outstanding service.

How often do you talk about customer service with your employees?

If you’re a customer-focused leader, the answer is daily. 

Employees tend to attach the same level of importance to concepts as their leaders do. If leaders talk about something a lot, it must be important. Conversely, employees don’t focus much energy on topics that leaders rarely discuss.

If customer service is important, you need to talk about it a lot.

Why leaders stay silent on service

I typically get one of two answers when I ask leaders why they don’t talk about customer service more often. 

The most common is “I don’t have time.”

The statement “I don’t have time” really means that customer service isn’t a top priority. There are other tasks that the leader has chosen to spend his or her time on instead of devoting time to customer service. It’s important to recognize that customer service isn’t really a high priority if you aren’t able to carve out time from other tasks to devote to it.

Service shouldn’t be something you talk about when you get a chance. It needs to be the way you do business. The secret is integrating the service conversation into communication that’s already taking place.

Are you willing to make customer service a priority?

The second most common reason I get for not talking about customer service more often is leaders don't know how. They tell me, "I don't know how to keep the conversation fresh and meaningful."

How to keep the conversation going

The first step is to make sure your employees all define outstanding customer service the same way. This gives everyone a common frame of reference for ongoing conversations. You are welcome to download my customer service vision worksheet to help you complete this step.

The second step is to integrate customer service into the daily operational discussions you already have. Looking at service as an initiative separate from your daily work is a sure-fire way to make service a low priority.

Here ten ways you can keep the conversation going:

• Talk about service in team meetings.

• Incorporate service into one-on-one discussions.

• Make service enhancement one of the success criteria for projects.

• Add a service section to bulletin boards and newsletters.

• Integrate customer service into strategic plans.

• Include a service metric on executive dashboards.

• Consider customer impact when solving problems.

• Ensure department goals are customer-focused. Track results.

• Review customer feedback with the team on a regular basis.

• Discuss customer service in employee review discussions.

Bonus tip! A client once asked me if there was an easy way to share customer service tips and reminders with the team. Their question led to the creation of a simple Customer Service Tip of the Week email. 

Anyone can subscribe for free by clicking here.

REI's tighter return policy is still customer-friendly

I take my dog to the beach more often thanks to a purchase encouraged by REI's generous return policy.

Last June, outdoor retailer Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) tightened up its return policy that allowed customers to return an item at any time for any reason. Customers now have up to a year to return most merchandise for a replacement or refund. The Seattle Times published a good overview of the changes.

REI implemented their new policy to address a reported spike in older items being returned at a time when corporate profits are shrinking. Outside magazine even reported a story of a customer who funded his outdoor adventures by profiting from fraudulent returns.  

To their credit, REI's stricter policy remains customer-friendly. You can still return most items for any reason within the one-year period. And, REI still offers a lifetime warranty on any item that is defective. The full text of the new policy is on the REI website. 

REI’s generous return policy recently gave my wife and me the confidence to make a purchase we otherwise might not have made.

We were thinking about buying a special cover that would allow our dog to ride in the back seat of our car. Its sturdy material protected the car’s interior while creating a hammock that was supposed to be comfortable for the dog. Our only reservation was we weren’t sure if our dog would actually like it.

The helpful REI salesperson told us to go for it. If our dog didn’t like it, he explained, we had one year to return the cover for a full refund. It didn’t matter if it was covered with dog hair and drool. We could still get our money back.

The return policy sold us. And, it turned out that our dog loves the new cover.

REI did a great job tweaking their policy. They prevented a small percentage of customers from hurting their business while making sure they didn’t punish the rest of their loyal fans. 

Here are a few lessons that can be applied to other businesses worried about dishonest customers:

• Don’t punish the majority of customers who are honest because a few customers aren’t.
• Most customers will understand a policy that sets reasonable limits.
• A generous policy can be an effective sales tool.

 

How Detoxing Our Brains Can Improve Customer Service

A constant stream of information can be overwhelming.

This post originally appeared on the Salesforce Blog. You can also read my latest Salesforce blog post, "The Biggest Myth in Customer Service."

The ability to pay attention is one of the most important customer service skills. It helps us understand our customers’ needs and identify solutions to make them happy.

Unfortunately, this ability can become strained or even compromised as our brains respond to an ever-increasing avalanche of distractions. When this happens, we get irritated, and find it difficult to pay attention. And when that happens, service failures become increasingly likely.

What’s the cure to this malady? Our brains need to go on an information diet so they can detox and recover.

Causes and Symptoms

A study conducted at the University of San Diego estimated the average person consumes 34 gigabytes of information per day. That 2009 estimate for the average person is certainly much lower than what a typical customer service employee is exposed to today.

Today’s customer service representatives are overwhelmed by information. They speak to customers and co-workers face to face, answer phones, respond to emails, text, chat, Tweet, and post on Facebook. For an increasing number of people, one computer screen is not enough, so now we have two. Retail stores wire their associates to headsets for constant communication. Food servers juggle several orders simultaneously. A new email flashes on the screen to interrupt our train of thought, only to be interrupted by a hovering co-worker who is in turn interrupted by a ringing phone.

For many of us, the information avalanche continues when our work day is over. We listen to the radio or talk on our mobile phone during our commute. When we get home we turn on the television, surf the web, text our friends, post, update, and share. It doesn’t even end at night as more and more of us bring our smart phones to bed.

This high volume of information takes its toll on our ability to concentrate. Continuously focusing and re-focusing our attention can leave our brains feeling exhausted. Without enough rest and recovery, it can eventually lead to a condition called Directed Attention Fatigue.

Here are some common symptoms of Directed Attention Fatigue (B. Cimprich, 2007):

• Distractibility

• Irritability

• Impatience

• Indecisiveness

• Difficulty starting and finishing tasks

 None of these qualities are conducive to outstanding customer service.

As the condition worsens, it becomes increasingly difficult to pay attention. Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell coined the term “Attention Deficit Trait” or ADT to refer to this brain overload effect. In a 2005 article in Harvard Business Review, Hallowell described a striking similarity between ADT and the well-known medical condition ADD (attention deficit disorder).

Hallowell observed that the number of patients he treated with ADT symptoms had increased ten times from 1995 to 2005. You can only wonder what that number looks like today.

How to Detox Your Brain

Our brains need time to recover from the constant bombardment of information and stimuli that vie for our attention. Here are five strategies you can employ that will put you in a better mood, increase your mental acuity, and improve your ability to pay attention to customers.

1. Take information breaks throughout the day

Studies show that customer service often gets worse in the afternoon, when employees get tired. Your break routine might be part of the issue. What does the typical customer service employee do on their break? They continue the information overload on their personal phone by checking email, responding to texts, and posting on Facebook. A better strategy is to stop the overflow of information completely. Try taking a walk or having a conversation with a co-worker.

2. Impose a curfew on electronics before bed

Sleep naturally restores our ability to focus, but our ability to get a good night’s sleep can be hampered if we continue to consume information as we go to bed. Sleep experts recommend shutting down electronic devices an hour before bed time to help improve the quality of sleep.

3. Commune with nature

Numerous studies have found that exposure to nature, such as taking a hike, can help restore our ability to pay attention.

4. Take a digital vacation

You may not be able to control the constant barrage of information at work, but you can do something about it in your personal life. Try taking a digital vacation where you turn off your phone, computer, and TV for a weekend. It may be hard at first to resist the digital cravings that are stirring up your appetite for useless information, but stick with it! You might just re-discover the simple joys of personal conversation, reading a book, or playing a board game.

5. Take a real vacation

Pack your bags and get out of town or take a “stay-cation” and explore your home town. Whatever you do, give your brain a break from the rat race.

Want more ideas for detoxing your brain? Check out Fast Company’s digital detox list or follow the #unplug hashtag on Twitter.

Signs that a service failure lies ahead

Businesses use signs for a variety of reasons. They’re used as advertising to entice customers to come on in. They offer guidance so people head in the right direction. They’re also posted to warn people about potential hazards.

I’ve written about signs a few times before. One post examined an unfriendly sign from a penny-pinching business that may have cost more money in lost customers. Another post had some fun with humorous signs posted in restrooms. I even wrote a post explaining why customers often don’t read signs.

Sometimes, signs warn customers that a service failure lies ahead. Here’s the signage I recently encountered outside a casual restaurant:

Would you want to eat here? 

The rules themselves aren’t unreasonable, but these signs suggest the restaurant focuses more on making sure guests are well-behaved than providing a great experience. 

Signs like this are often just the tip of the customer service iceberg. A closer look at this restaurant revealed other indicators that a service failure is likely to happen. Their rating on Yelp was 2.5 stars. Trip Advisor reviewers were a little more generous with a 3 average. They offered open air seating, so I was able to observe a server greeting a newly seated table. Her opening lines consisted of listing the items they were out of. No “Hello,” “How are you today?” or “Can I get you something to drink?” Just “Here’s what we don’t have.”

All of these signs encouraged me to find somewhere else to eat. 

Fixing service quality at this restaurant will take more than just fixing the signs up front, but signs are a part of a business’s image. It’s hard to imagine a place that offered great service would choose to project an image like this restaurant did with their signs.

Here are a few questions you might ask if you want to look at your own signs: 

• What do your signs tell customers about your business?
• Do your signs match the image you want to project? 
• When rules are absolutely necessary, is there a friendlier way? 

5 Ways to Hire Faster

Hiring the right people takes time, but there are shortcuts.

This post originally appeared on the Call Center Demo and Conference website. I'll be facilitating a session at the conference titled "Staff Up! 10 Ways to Hire and Train Faster"   on Tuesday, October 22. The conference is in Atlanta, Georgia and early-bird rates expire this Friday, September 6.

You’ve just gotten the green light to add some staff to your call center team. Adding headcount will bring some much needed relief to an overworked team, but it can take quite a bit of time to get new employees hired and up to speed. Unfortunately, you don’t have a lot of time.

This post offers five tips to help you speed up the process. But, before you get started, make sure you have two prerequisites:

1. A profile of the ideal candidate
2. A way to screen candidates to ensure they meet the ideal criteria.

These two items will ensure you know what you are looking for and can tell the difference between a qualified and an unqualified applicant. You’re welcome to download my free worksheet and view the short how-to videos if you haven’t completed these steps already: www.toistersolutions.com/competency

Once you have those two prerequisites in place, you’re ready to start hiring. Here are five tips to help you speed up the process.

Tip #1: Hire a temp agency

The knock against temp agencies is they can charge some hefty fees, particularly for temp to hire placements. That may be true, but there are some good reasons why you might turn to an agency to help you hire.

The first is speed. When I managed a call center, I knew I could place a call in the afternoon and have interviews set up the next morning. The second is volume. Temp agencies hire for multiple clients so they have access to a much broader pool of candidates. The third is screening. Agencies can do a lot of basic screening for you that you would otherwise have to do on your own, such as testing for computer skills.

Tip #2: Go hunting

In a perfect world, you post the job ad and watch the qualified applicants come stampeding in. In the real world, this doesn’t always happen. Don’t assume that your next superstar employee is actively looking for a job. Talented employees often have jobs already but could be persuaded to join your team if the right opportunity came along.

Where can you find someone who isn’t looking? Try searching on LinkedIn. Post the job announcement on your own social networks and ask people to share. You can even try networking with employees at the call center across town.

Tip #3: Lower the bar

Before you dismiss this idea as just plain crazy, think about what someone really needs to be successful when they join your company. Each additional requirement decreases the number of available candidates so you can access a broader pool by eliminating requirements.

A great example comes from insurance companies. They often need their call center representatives to be licensed. It would be extremely difficult to find enough licensed insurance professionals to meet their staffing needs so they incorporate the licensing process into their new hire training program.

Tip #4: Find people who are passionate about what you do

When I was a teenager, my first job was in a retail clothing store. Why did I work there? Because I bought all my clothes there and the employee discount was awesome! Once I was hired, I learned the store had a steady stream of applications from people like me so they never had a problem finding new employees.

Many companies have groups of potential employees who are already passionate about your company, your product, or your industry. These people might be customers or just enthusiasts. For nonprofits, they are often volunteers. Find out who they are, where they are, and make sure they see your job posting!

Tip #5: Hire from other departments

Your next call center employee might already work for your company.

Starbucks was one of the site tours at ACCE 2013 in Seattle. The call center we toured assisted employees who worked at Starbucks stores with their human resources needs. On our tour, we learned that most of their contact center employees come from their stores!

This concept can also work for short-term or seasonal staffing needs. When I worked in a large call center, our quality assurance and training teams served as emergency back-up agents. Occasionally, when things got really busy, we’d all get on the phones and answer calls. It helped the call center quickly respond to a spike in calls but it also kept our own skills sharp so we could do a better job of training agents and monitoring calls.

Want more?

I’ll be sharing more ideas to help you speed up the hiring process at the Call Center Demo and Conference in October. My session is called Staff Up! 10 Ways to Hire and Train Faster and will also include ideas for training new employees once you get them in the door.

Emotions: the next frontier in customer service efficiency

It's not always easy to act happy.

Many frontline customer service jobs have two things in common. First, the pay is low with many starting at minimum wage. Second, they require a high degree of emotional labor.

The market for emotional labor may be cheap, but it’s also woefully inefficient. 

I know it’s hard to make a business case for making your people feel better, but there’s always money to be made in efficiency. Companies love efficiency. This post explores how companies use emotional labor ineffeciently, the high costs associated with this problem, and explores some possible solutions.

What is emotional labor?

Here’s a brief explanation of emotional labor from a recent blog post about why customer service reps aren’t friendly:

“Emotional labor is a term initially coined by Arlie Hochschild in her 1983 book, The Managed Heart. It refers to the effort required to display appropriate workplace emotions, such as friendliness and enthusiasm. The amount of emotional labor required is based on the difference between the emotions an employee is expected to display, and the emotions an employee actually feels.”

Think about the emotional labor that’s often required in customer service. Employees are expected to convey positive emotions to customers regardless of whether they actually feel this way. They must even remain calm and professional even when a customer treats them as a verbal punching bag and avoid taking it personally.

If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you know this isn’t always easy.

Cheap, but not efficient

A 2004 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that emotional labor is inversely correlated to hourly wages. The higher the level of emotional labor a job requires, the less that job is likely to pay. Examples come from customer service employees as well as other professions such as social workers, bill collectors, and 911 operators. 

Customer service employees don’t get paid much to act happy.

Cheap doesn’t necessarily mean efficient. There are also substantial costs associated with high degrees of emotional labor. These costs may offset or even surpass any savings associated with low wages. 

Here are just a few examples from high-stress customer service jobs:

• Turnover. It costs a lot to hire and train employees, even cheap ones.
• Absenteeism. Extra employees are required when people call out.
• Productivity. People get less done when they feel emotionally drained.
• Customer Satisfaction. Service quality suffers when emotions run high.

All of these costs negatively impact profitability.

Improving emotional labor efficiency 

Companies often improve efficiency by finding ways to reduce consumption. This strategy works brilliantly for emotional labor. Happy employees require less effort to project the right customer service personality.

Employee engagement is the key to reducing your emotional labor consumption. Engaged employees are overwhelmingly happy in their jobs. They are also highly committed to helping the company achieve its goals. 

Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace Report found that having engaged employees greatly reduced the costs associated with high emotional labor requirements. On average:

• Turnover is 25% lower
• Absenteeism is 37% lower
• Productivity is 21% higher
• Customer Satisfaction is 10% higher
• Profitability is 22% higher

That's the business case. Your executives won't listen to a touchy-feely argument about employee happiness, but you'll capture their attention when you start the conversation with numbers they care about. Efficiency is efficiency.

Improving employee engagement isn’t easy, but I’ve assembled a short reading list to help you get started.

• This post on the using the Employee Engagement Cycle will give you a strategic view of employee engagement. There’s even a short quiz to help you start the conversation.

• Some customers require an unreasonable amount of emotional labor from your employees. Consider asking them to take their business elsewhere. Seth Godin has a nice and simple explanation.

• Customer service leaders in low-margin industries like Trader Joe’s and Costco have found it’s more efficient to pay a higher wage so they can attract better employees. This post explores whether you should consider giving your employees a raise.

When I wrote my customer service book, Service Failure, it took me some time to find the right words to end the final chapter. I finally found a sentence that I think applies here quite well:

Above all else, customer service leaders must remember that while customer service can be difficult, their job is to make great performance easy.

Keep that in mind when you are working with your employees. What can you do to make it easy for them to be happy?

Why experience can be a liability in customer service

The legendary Tommy at the Strathisla Distillery in Scotland. 

In customer service, as in many aspects of life, experience is prized. It’s asked for in job ads, touted in advertising, and used to headline resumes. “I’ve got experience” is said with pride.

There are even cautionary tales about undervaluing experience. Circuit City famously fired its most experienced employees in a last ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy. It failed.

As terrific as experience is, it can also be a liability in customer service. That's because there are certain situations where experience can make service failures more likely to happen. Here are three reasons why:

#1 The Video We’ve Seen Before

There’s an incredible video on YouTube that highlights research on a phenomenon called selective attention. Watch the video below first before reading further or skip it if you’ve seen it before. (Click here to view it on YouTube if it doesn’t appear on your screen.)

Pretty crazy, right? 

The researchers have since published a second video highlighting their research. Take a look at this one and see how you do the second time around. (Click here to view it on YouTube if it doesn’t appear on your screen.)

How did you do? 

For most of us, the experience we gained by watching the first video inhibited our ability to spot new changes in the second video. We became locked in, delighted that our experience let us in on the trick until it turned out that really wasn’t the trick at all.

Experience often works the same way in customer service. We develop a laser focus on what we know while missing new opportunities to serve.

#2 Lightning fast recognition

I once wrote a post explaining why listening to customers is harder than you think. The problem gets amplified for experienced employees.

Our brain has the amazing ability to make sense of large amounts of data by comparing it to familiar patterns. It’s how we recognize familiar faces or even read written words. 

You've probably seen this famous example involving misspelled words: 

People can easliy raed misspleled wrods as long as all the lettres are there and the fisrt and lsat letters are in the corerct position.

This pattern recognition ability can also cause problems for experienced customer service employees. If they’ve heard the same story 100 times before their brain will quickly sense a familiar pattern. Listening stops as their brain instinctively anticipates the rest of the story. 

The experienced brain often anticipates correctly, but not always. This ability can be a problem when the brain automatically cuts off listening and returns the wrong answer. 

#3 Everyone loves Tommy

My wife and I visited the Strathisla Distillery in Scotland last year where we met a man named Tommy. He had made Scotch for years until he retired and moved to the visitor center. We couldn't pass up a chance to snap a photo of Tommy holding a bottle of 12 year old Scotch that he had made years before. Tommy was a legend.

We recently dined at a restaurant that also had an employee named Tommy. This Tommy had worked there for 45 years. His official role seemed to be schmoozing with guests and telling stories. Everyone loved Tommy.

A lot of companies have a Tommy. He or she has worked there for years and knows all the ins and outs. Tommy is beloved by customers, co-workers, and even the boss. 

There’s also a downside to all this deference to Tommy. Sometimes, Tommy slips a bit or has a bad day. Perhaps he starts taking his role for granted or, like all of us, he needs a little feedback to stay on course. 

However, unlike everyone else, Tommy doesn’t get this feedback. He isn’t held accountable. Nobody wants to hurt Tommy’s feelings.

Overcoming the experience problem

Customer service leaders should prize all the good qualities that come with experience while helping to minimize the obstacles that come with it. Here are a few suggestions:

• Turn them into trainers and mentors. Taking knowledge they know like the back of their hand and explaining it to someone else allows them to see it from a new perspective. Plus, less experienced employees will gain from their wisdom.

• Teach new tricks. One way to overcome the problem of familiar patterns is to give experienced employees new assignments and special projects. This challenges them in new ways and slows down the problem of familiar patterns.

• Suck it up and go there with Tommy. You don't want to upset Tommy. I get it. But there's a good chance Tommy will appreciate a little feedback and coaching if he's approached with the proper amount of respect. Make it clear that Tommy’s experience and wisdom is valued, but be firm about the expected performance.

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How could they miss that?!

How could they miss these obvious housekeeping issues? 

I recently spent the night in a budget hotel. It had all the features you might expect such as a clean bed, a decent television, complimentary breakfast, and free WiFi. The room also had a number of housekeeping and cleanliness issues that really detracted from the experience. 

It made me wonder, how could they miss that?

Before I give you a rundown of possible explanations, check out my short video tour that highlights some of the problems in the room. (Click here to view it on YouTube if you don’t see the embedded video.) 

It’s obvious that these housekeeping issues shouldn’t happen, but they did. The real question is why? It’s important to understand the potential root causes of these types of service failures if you want to prevent them.

Here are some possibilities:

• The housekeeper wasn’t properly trained.
• The housekeeper doesn’t care about doing a good job.
• Productivity standards make the housekeeper feel pressured to take shortcuts.
• The hotel doesn’t have clear standards and SOPs for housekeeping.
• A supervisor never inspects the room to observe the housekeeper’s performance.
• Budget constraints are used as an excuse for letting little issues slide.
• The housekeeper doesn’t feel it’s their job to report maintenance issues.
• Maintenance waits for housekeepers to report maintenance issues.
• The supervisor rarely if ever reminds housekeepers about the importance of cleanliness.

Those explanations are all plausible. Here’s one that’s not:

The hotel somehow assigned the only room that had housekeeping and maintenance issues to a customer service consultant who blogs about the root cause of service failures. 

I’m a big believer in the iceberg theory, which means that many other rooms probably had similar issues.

Sadly, the problems I highlighted in the video weren’t the only issues I experienced. My electronic room key didn’t work when I first got to the room, so I had to go back to the front desk after checking in. The television didn’t work either, so I had to call for maintenance. I showed the broken ironing board to the guy who came to fix the television and all he said was that he’d make a note of it. 

Gee, thanks.

Here’s one more explanation that reminds me of my very first post on this blog.

The hotel was in a small town and only had a few competitors. It’s possible that the hotel’s management didn’t feel it was worth their time to invest in luxuries such as removing hair from the bathroom since guests didn’t have many other options.

Whatever the explanation, these small issues could end up hurting business. Here are just a few ways this hotel might see profits take a dive:

• Negative online reviews. Their online reputation is decent, but there are a number of complaints about cleanliness issues on Trip Advisor. That could be enough to encourage guests to stay somewhere else.

• Corporate accounts. I was traveling to visit a client and this hotel was my client’s preferred lodging. My client is one of the biggest companies in town and no doubt a major source of revenue for the hotel. Too many complaints from people like me could cause my clients to send people to a competitor.

• Negative WOM. Having a blog that three or four people read on a semi-regular basis gives me a platform for spreading bad news about a company. I won’t name this particular hotel because doing so wouldn’t fit my personal policy for calling out companies, but what if I did?
  

5 Reasons Why Angry Customers Don't Complain

Customer complaints are a valuable source of information. They let us know when a customer is unhappy so we can try to retain their business. Complaints can also serve as an early warning system that helps prevent service failures by allowing us to fix small problems before they become big ones.

A lack of complaints doesn’t mean things are going well.

Noted customer service expert, John Goodman, estimates that only 50 percent of customers will complain about a problem. (The actual number varies by industry, company, and product.) Of those complaints, Goodman estimates that 90 percent are directed to frontline employees. In a recent post, I discussed reasons why frontline employees don’t pass along those complaints to management.

What about the other 50 percent who don’t complain at all?

This is the really scary group. They silently take their business elsewhere or they tell everyone they know (except for you) about your poor service. The damage to your reputation and your bottom line could be well underway before you even know about it.

Here are five reasons why these customers might not be sharing their complaints with you.

Does your company discourage customer complaints?

#1: It’s too difficult

Most customers won’t bother complaining to your company if it’s too difficult. Or, they’ll just Tweet it. 

I recently went online to register an LG television I had just purchased. Their registration link redirected me to the wrong page so I had to hunt around on the LG website for the correct page. This was a minor annoyance, but I’m an LG fan, so I decided to let them know.

First, I tried to email. If you want to email LG you have to fill in 14 required fields in their email contact form plus acknowledge that you’ve read and agree to their data protection policy. No thanks.

One of those Forsee website surveys popped up as I clicked out of the email form. I thought about giving that a try until I saw the survey. It consisted of 36 questions, 24 of which were required. Really?!

I just wanted to tell LG about a small problem on their website, but they made it too difficult to be worthwhile. I decided to Tweet the problem to LG instead. Their responsive Twitter folks quickly got the message and fixed the link, but my complaint was now public rather than private.

If you want your customers to complain, don’t make it so difficult that they feel like they’re being punished for trying to drop you a line.

#2: No confidence

Many customers don’t complain because they don’t think it will do any good.

Psychotherapist Guy Winch called these “self-defeating, self-fulfilling prophecies” in The Squeaky Wheel, his how-to guide for effective complaining. We don’t believe complaining will do any good so we don’t complain. Because we don’t complain, the problem doesn’t get fixed. Because the problem doesn’t get fixed, we continue to be angry with the company that’s responsible.

#3: Afraid of the outcome

Some customers don’t complain because they’re worried it will negatively impact an otherwise good relationship.

I learned about this one from my friend Lenore. She and her husband had received poor service at one of their favorite restaurants. They thought about complaining, but were worried that the owner would back his employee rather than see it their way. In the end, they chose to write off a new employee’s rude behavior as a one-time occurrence because they didn’t want a complaint to escalate to the point where they felt like they wouldn’t return.

#4: Fear of retribution

You won’t get many complaints if customers feel they’ll be penalized in some way.

Complaining customers have been treated rudely, denied service, or worse. It only takes one gross YouTube video to convince customers to never, ever, complain about their pizza. Patrons of Amy’s Baking Company Boutique & Bistro in Scottsdale, Arizona were recently subjected to a barrage of profane verbal assaults in what BuzzFeed called the most epic Facebook meltdown ever. In one extreme case, a San Francisco bookstore owner tracked down the writer of a negative Yelp review and went to his house where she allegedly assaulted him. 

#5: Nothing to gain

Customers won’t complain because there’s nothing in it for them. 

This is often the case with rude service. Customers aren’t trying to get a refund or have a defective product repaired. They simply feel slighted by a rude employee. Why take time to complain if they can just take their business somewhere else?

How can you encourage complaints?

Start by making complaining easy. Whittle down those 14 fields on your contact form to just three: name, email address, and message. Skip the never-ending surveys and stick with a few simple questions. Be available.

Next, encourage customers to complain. Make sure none of the obstacles detailed above are present. Ask them directly, “How was everything?” Actually give a damn about the answer.

Finally, take action. Prove to your customers that their complaint was worth their time. Resolve their issue. Thank customers for their feedback rather than lashing out or making excuses. After all, they’ve just helped you make your business better.

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Why employees don't pass along customer complaints

Are your employees silent about customer complaints?

Continuously improving customer service seems simple in theory. All you have to do is listen to what customers complain about and then solve their problems. The really sophisticated companies employ early warning systems to spot complaints before too many customers are affected.

Unfortunately, the most critical link in this process is often its weakest: frontline employees.

Noted customer service expert John Goodman estimates that 90 percent of complaints are directed to frontline employees. That makes them a great source of information about what makes customers unhappy. The problem is that these complaints often aren’t passed along to someone who could take action.

Here’s a passage from my book, Service Failure, that addresses reasons employees might not pass along complaints:

If employees aren’t at fault, you might expect them to take action to resolve the problem or pass the complaint along to someone who can address the issue. But what if handling the complaint isn’t in an employee’s best interests? 

There are several explanations for why an employee might not want to address a customer complaint or pass it along to management: 

• The employee fears being reprimanded for causing the complaint.
• The employee thinks the complaint will not be properly addressed by management, so sharing the information is a waste of time.
• The employee views handling the problem as an annoyance or inconvenience.
• The employee believes he was treated poorly by the customer, so intentionally mishandling the complaint is a means to exact revenge.

If you want complaints, you’ve gotta ask

I used to think I possessed some sort of magical charm that would get employees to open up to me. Many of my consulting assignments require me to gather information through employee interviews. Time after time, my client’s executives would be surprised at what I was able to learn through my conversations with their frontline team.

The reality is I don’t have any magical powers. Employees open up to me because I do two things their managers typically don’t.

1. I ask them for their input.
2. I offer to work with them to make things better.

Employees, like customers, want to be heard. Most genuinely want to make things better. They just need to be given that chance.

Unfortunately, too many customer service leaders solve problems by brainstorming with each other in closed-door meetings. The unsaid message to the frontlines is “the grown-ups are talking” and the team should hold tight until the next proclamation is made. 

Do you want to get your employees to pass along those complaints? Make a habit of asking them what their customers are saying. Better yet, ask them what they think we should do about it. Involve them in creating and implementing solutions.

Frontline employees are one of the best sources of voice of customer feedback. Can you afford to ignore them?