John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Brilliant Communication

Idea 98: How to respond to customer complaints

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest sources of learning.

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft

You are bound to face situations when things go wrong from a customer’s point of view. Don’t be dismissive of your customer’s problem, even if you are convinced you’re not at fault. Often you will be dealing with a customer’s perceptions, and in this context they are as important as the facts of the case.

Although it sounds like a paradox, a customer with a complaint represents a genuine opportunity for your business:

• If you handle the complaint successfully, your customer is likely to prove to be more loyal in the future as if nothing had gone wrong in the present.
• People willing to complain are rare. ...