A Complaint is a Gift: Using Customer Feedback as a Strategic Tool

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First published in 1996, A Complaint Is a Gift introduced the revolutionary notion that customer complaints are not annoyances to be dodged, denied or buried, but are instead valuable pieces of feedback that can be used to improve an organization's products and services. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. There are two brand new chapters on the Internet, a new section entitled Handling Complaints Directed at You (meant for the employees who actually receive and have to answer those sometimes angry phone calls and emails), and another new section that turns the tables and discusses how the reader can complain effectively. And throughout the text has been heavily revised, with a wealth of new examples, tools and strategies. Customer complaints can give businesses a wake-up call when they're not achieving their fundamental purpose---meeting customer needs. Complaints provide a feedback mechanism that can help organizations rapidly and inexpensively shift products, service style, and market focus. Unfortunately many businesses dodge responsibility for a customer's dissatisfaction, believing that complaining customers are trying to get something for free or that the problem is the customer's fault. Businesses who don't value their customers' complaints suffer from costly, negative word-of-mouth advertising. A Complaint Is a Gift also tells how to create complaint-friendly organizations by encouraging customers to speak out. It outlines communication structures that can facilitate the movementof complaints from front line staff to upper management, allowing customer-identified problems to be fixed within the company. Complaint-friendly cultures are described in detail, and specific structures are suggested that can be adopted by companies interested in becoming complaint-friendly. A Complaint Is a Gift repositions the role of complaints in business-and argues that handling customer complaints is not just about making customers feel better. It is a book for individuals and companies to deal with complaints in a new and refreshing way. It also brings together three decades of customer dissatisfaction research and shows how companies can use this information to change internal policies and practices. Table of Content Part I: Complaints: Lifeline To The Customer Chapter 1. Complaint-As-Gift Philosophy Chapter 2. The Biggest Bargain In Market Research Chapter 3. What Dissatisfied Customers Say, Do, And Want Chapter 4. Why Most Complaints Do Not Complain Chapter 5. The Links Between Complaining Customers, Service Recovery And Continuous Improvement Part II: Putting The Complaint-As-Gift Philosophy Into Practice Chapter 6. The Gift Formula Chapter 7. Five Principles For Turning Terrorist Customers Into Partnes Chapter 8. Responding To Written Complaints Chapter 9. ?Ouch! That Hurts!?--Handling Personal Criticism Section III: How Much To Make Your Organization Complaint Friendly Chapter 10. Generating More Complaints: Toll-Free Numbers And Other Strategies Chapter 11. Create Complaint-Friendly Policies Chapter 12. Developing A Complaint-Friendly Culture Chapter 13. Creating A Complaint-Friendly Environment For Internal Customers Chapter 14. Implementing A Complaint-Friendly Organization