The Underappreciated Value of Customer and Client Complaints
Bill Gates and Jamie Dimon suggest that professionals and companies are looking at dissatisfaction incorrectly.
Most people in business don't enjoy hearing complaints. Some don't tolerate them at all. They instead react with defensiveness, dismissiveness or arrogantly pointing fingers at consumers. That’s shortsighted and a waste of what is being shared.
"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning,” Bill Gates wrote in his book, Business @ the Speed of Thought.
Recently, Jamie Dimon, the CEO at JPMorgan Chase, also spoke to the value of communicating with poise and curiosity with your unhappy buyers, except he was more direct and vivid in his language about their experiences.
"I always tell a client, 'When you complain to us, you're doing us a favor,” Dimon said, stressing those final two words on LinkedIn's "This is Working" video series. “If we're torturing you, we're probably torturing another 10,000 or 100,000 people.”
Building trust through improving positive, satisfying experiences is well worth it.
“Customers overwhelmingly agreed (83%) that they feel more loyal to brands that respond to and resolve their complaints, so delivering excellent support may help increase customer lifetime value,” Khoros, a customer engagement software company, found.
It’s also factual that disappointment and anger, when they are as the lasting emotions and feelings experienced, lead to 65% of consumers moving on to a different brand.
The door is open to gain profitable knowledge for how to get to the next level in business, yet the organizations are often dismissing what is right in front of them.
“We invest significant resources in customer insights and analytics, yet often overlook the invaluable gift our clients give us when they take the time to voice a complaint,” says Lasandra Barksdale, a customer experience (CX) professional and the founder and principal at Kompass Customer Solutions.
“It may be a gift wrapped in rough packaging but when a client raises a concern, they’re providing us with a golden opportunity to improve.”
Learning to frame complaints in such a welcomed manner so that all people in customer/client-contact positions who experience complaints, conduct themselves in a manner that is patient, interested, caring, ethical and helpful, often proves emotionally and professionally challenging.
It shouldn’t be thought of in such a negative light.
“Instead of viewing complaints as disruptions,” Barksdale says. “We should see them as a free consultancy service.”
Start at the top.
“This shift starts with leadership,” she says. "It’s about setting a tone that recognizes feedback as crucial to our growth. Then training your team to treat every complaint as valuable data that’s essential for long-term success.”
This smart commitment requires seeing the value in what may be experienced as unreasonable, annoying or frustrating.
“The real trick is creating a culture where complaints are not just tolerated but celebrated as the seeds of innovation,” Barksdale says. “When everyone, from the front office to the C-suite, understands that complaints are the key to staying relevant, they’ll handle them with the respect and attention they deserve.”
“The best free customer research is always within comments, complaints or reviews,” asserts Emma Orr, an independent bid director in the electric vehicle (EV) industry at Winning Business, UK, where she helps charge-point operators win more business.
“A sensible business,” she adds, “will take that info and turn it into content, info or an improvement to the given product or service. People are essentially telling you how to improve your business.”
This is not the common human reaction.
“Too many people take this as an insult, as though they are perfect. They either respond negatively, not at all or just feel insulted,” Orr states.
“The reality is they should be thanking the customer for their honest feedback, tell them what you will do to improve and potentially ask if they want to be part of the consumer group to review the new and improved product.”
When Dimon communicated that "If we're torturing you, we're probably torturing another 10,000 or 100,000 people,” he shows an emotionally-evolved understanding about the customer, client — or prospect — experience.
Organizations and their people often struggle to recognize the pain and its impact being experienced — and that for those on the receiving end of it — it does feel to be very much a form of “torture.”
“It's a learning curve,” Orr adds. “Often business leaders and owners have too much ego, when realistically they need to be more humble. Understand your customers are your business, if you want to continue to grow and scale.”
While costly, this typical organization reaction is not usually intentional.
“Sometimes organizations overlook this aspect because they get stuck in the the doing, in the execution, in the transactional,” Barksdale says. “But it's important to acknowledge that every feedback received is like a piece of a puzzle.
“Our responsibility is to connect these pieces, identify patterns and tackle the underlying issues.
“When we take this approach, we aren't just resolving issues; we're enhancing the overall experience for everyone who engages with us. This allows us to move from being reactive to proactive, from answering questions to solving problems and it ultimately helps our clients better reach their desired goals.”
Dimon insist that CEOs, founders or any high-level business leaders are doing their organizations and themselves a disservice to their mission and careers by not getting out of the office to interact and learn.
They don’t realize the critical importance of conversing, listening, learning and lessening friction with the people who buy from them.
“I've always said that the best feedback is to go and sit with your customer service-customer experience team and ask them what the most common customer complaints are,” Orr says.
“That is your market research and that is how you improve your offer. Simple.
“Leaders need to get out of the boardroom and talk to staff on the ground,” she adds. “They need to ask probing questions about customers and problems, to greater understand what the road blocks are.”
Barksdale is equally pointed in her analysis.
“CEOs who are too busy to listen are too busy too lead,” she says matter-of-factly.
“As leaders, it is our responsibility to stay connected to those who depend on us,” Barksdale adds. “Empathy is at the heart of a exceptional customer experience.”
She recommends moving, curiosity and learning as a strategy for improvement, relationship trust and loyalty and the subsequent financial return.
“Leaders must step outside the boardroom and into their clients' shoes,“ Barksdale advises. “It's not just about hearing customer feedback. It's about understanding the nuances of their experiences. Leaders need to recognize that their customers' trust is one of their business's greatest assets.”
She expands on the definition of a founder or top-level executive.
“Being a CEO is about more than guiding the organization. It's also about ensuring alignment with those who matter most. We must lead by example, to show that we value the voices of those we serve and to act on what we hear,” Barksdale states.
“That’s how we build a business that’s not just successful, but also fair, responsive and grounded in the real needs of our customers.”
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2024 Findings by Khoros: “85% of customers are willing to go out of their way to do business with a company that provides better service (Forbes).”
“Businesses can increase revenues between 4%-8% above their market when prioritizing better customer service experiences (Bain & Company).”
“91% of customers say they’re more likely to make another purchase after a great customer service experience (G2).”
“Bad customer experiences costs organizations an estimated $3.7 trillion annually in 2024, up 19% from 2023’s projection (Qualitrics).”
“64% of customers said they’d find another company to do business with if the company doesn’t provide good customer service, no matter how much they enjoy the product (Forbes).”
“Only 15% of consumers will forgive a bad experience from a brand whose customer experience was rated “very poor” by the customer (Qualtrics XM Institute).”
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Great topic and insights from your experts! Too often leaders get annoyed by those "pesky" complaints from "hard to please" customers when, in reality, they may be offering a window into an early problem and should not be blindly ignored. Marriott used to have a video called "The Silent Complaint." It is about a customer who has a bad night at one of their hotels and, when checking out, says everything was "fine" then tells his companion, "I will never stay at a Marriott again." To me, this is the "complaint" all leaders should fear! Tell me about the problem and I can fix it. Keep it quiet and never come back again? Ouch!