Sometimes you just can’t win. No matter what you say, that
complaining customer remains unhappy. And maybe even takes his business elsewhere.

In any commercial enterprise, there’s nothing worse.

But does it have to happen that way? I’d suggest that it doesn’t, that it almost never has to mean loss of business if you go about things thoughtfully and by all means calmly. Like most challenges, success here is a matter of that elusive quality we call common sense and of controlling the damage by simply listening to the customer.

So let the poor soul rant and then start from there. If you’re very good, you’ll turn an enemy into a friend because most people won’t want to leave you. They won’t want to acknowledge having made a mistake by connecting with you in the first place. So give them new reason to think they were right in choosing you and your company.

That act of listening has to start long before any complaint is registered, of course. Really, it should start within the first 30 seconds of your connection, long before the buyer has said “Yes, OK, let’s do business.” Truth is, if you’re not listening at that moment, then you’re not likely to get him anyway.

But it’s not just about listening. What I think you have to do, in personal situations just as often as commercial ones, is develop the ability to put yourself in the other’s shoes. Try to understand what he needs and wants, what makes him angry, what makes him smile. Solid relationships of any sort are always based on that foundation.

It’s a principle of good journalism too, and I’ve tried hard to apply it here. I’m sure I don’t always succeed, but there’s no doubting that a well written story begins with a question: what does the reader – my customer – need to know? Way too often, perhaps more in the mainstream press than in the business-to-business press, writers see their story as some sort of jigsaw puzzle existing in a world of its own, bearing no connection to the reader. They grab this fact and that, usually the lowest-hanging fruit, and jam it all together so that it tracks in a more or less straight line, and then they’re done. Finishing was more important
than ensuring its usefulness.

But is it comprehensible? Has sufficient background been
offered to make for easy understanding? Does it answer the
questions readers are likely to have?

It’s no different in business. Success comes in anticipating your customer’s hopes and fears, answering his questions before he asks them, and making every aspect of his connection with you transparent. Leave him no room to doubt, and if you screw up, start the repair by admitting your failure, listening to what your customer has to say about it, and then acting – that’s crucial – to fix it.

Time for an admission: I’ve launched myself into this subject because I think I succeeded a couple of days ago in just such a situation with an unhappy customer of ours who was right to be displeased. So I listened, and now we’re on the right path. I don’t say that in self-congratulation, and it only occurred to me to write about it when I later received an e-mail newsletter about exactly this subject. The newsletter in question is from John Tschohl, an
international service strategist (www.customer-service.com), and the title of this one is ‘Don’t Run from Complaining Customers’.

It seems like I could join the speaking circuit alongside this guy because he writes about an idea I’ve always thought was vitally important: that a customer’s complaint is really a chance not just to fixthings but to make them better. A chance to create a relationship where maybe there wasn’t one before.

Here’s what Tschohl writes: “When a customer complains, you
should be grateful. Why? Because that customer is giving you the opportunity to make things right and to retain her business. Research shows that only about 4 percent of customers will tell you when they have a problem. The other 96 percent simply won’t do business with you again. Instead, they quietly fume and take their business – and their money – elsewhere. They also will tell an average of 10 other people about the problem they had with your organization.”

Those numbers are pretty compelling, and scary too. Think
about that: nearly every unhappy customer won’t tell you that he’s dissatisfied, let alone explain why he’s ticked. He’ll just split, and you may never know why. Damned hard to move forward if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong.

So maybe you should simply ask your customer every once in
a while? Maybe even demand, in a kindly way, a frank exchange of views, as they say. Make it clear that you want to know that you don’t take his continuing business for granted.

Assume nothing and you’ll have taken the first step to a
good relationship.

Rolf Lockwood is editorial director and publisher of Today’s Trucking. You can reach him at 416-614-5825 or rolf@todaystrucking.com. A customer’s complaint is really
a chance not just to fix things but to make them better.