Complaints - Are they a curse or a boon?
To kick start the discussion, let's recall the words of Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman and scientist, who said in 1774:-
"Grievances cannot be redressed unless they are known, and they cannot be known but through complaints..........If these are deemed affronts, and the messengers punished as offenders, who will henceforth send petitions? Where complaining is a crime, hope becomes despair".
But no matter what Benjamin Franklin might have said, the initial response of most of the Companies about a 'Complaint' is negative, and is looked upon as an attempt to challenge the established system and procedure of their organization, and is taken with a pinch of salt. Irrespective of the merits of a complaint, the first strategy to deal with a complaint, with most of the companies, is to find flaws in the complaint and prove customer is not right, so that complaint can straightway be dismissed.
However, complaint to me, is the gap between organizational processes for delivery and customer's dissatisfaction in not receiving the desired results in respect of that activity. It's a process gap. Complaints, therefore, to me is a God sent opportunity to revisit the SOP, and plug the loopholes because of which the given activity didn't reach the desired destination, or it failed. That is at the micro level.
At macro level, it could well be a customer retention opportunity, as given the multiple options available these days to customers, a customer's grievance if not addressed satisfactorily, will simply slip out and shall go to your competitor. And remember, the customer acquisition cost is huge, other than the time spent in cultivating a relationship, and therefore losing a customer can never be an option for anyone.
It is therefore suggested that let the Companies treat 'complaint resolution' as an R &D activity, and let Companies deploy best of their optimist and flexible people, who can examine a complaint from complainant's point of views, beyond the self imposed Firewall they create in the name of compliance to system and procedure.
The first step towards a complaint resolution, therefore, is to acknowledge receipt of the complaint, followed by a call to complainer to understand as to what happened, keep a trend of kind of complaints which are repeatedly hitting the deck, and then review your processes to stem the rot.
Two examples here shall show how complaints helped leading international companies review their processes to plug the loopholes which were a hindrance to fulfillment of customer's expectations.
First in case is..... darling of children & youth across the globe, the enviable McDonalds, which started its India journey from New Delhi in 1996.
Given the credibility with which it came to India, it wasn't surprising to see serpentine queues outside all McDonald's outlets, with parents finding it quite discomforting managing their impatient children, with queue ahead moving at snail's pace. Why so ? Because the family who used to reach payment -cum-delivery counters, will take lot of time in finalizing their orders.......and once they thought they are through, the customer serving executive shall suggest them to go for combos, as that shall be cheaper and there are few freebies which shall come with combo automatically. Result, delay in serving every other customer in queue. However, the system continued as it is for many years, even when customers were complaining, for the company, probably, was initially in denial mode.
Finally, McDonalds realized the flaw in their processes, and introduced, a system where couple of customer-assist executives went to customers in-between the queues, shall show them menu, take orders, write name/Mobile No. on the order sheet, give it to kitchen, and those customers shall drop out of queue and wait for their orders getting executed. That way, at any given point of time, 4-5 customers shall get disposed off simultaneously, and the queue and impatience of the customers started coming down.
Over a period of time, with more customers becoming techno-savvy, McDonalds installed couple of self-service kiosk on their counters, customers feed their orders themselves, and all such changes cut the flab, delivery system improved, and all these improvisations increased customer's satisfaction to a great extent. Complaints over, the company started working on increasing the customer's experience.
Another example I want to share here is of our, Friend-in-need - the ubiquitous Uber - the car hailing service, which launched its India operations from Bangalore in the year 2013. It made travel for everyone very simple, safe and economical. Uber, revolutionized the way people, across all age-groups, started traveling. The App, also had an inbuilt customer grievance redressal system, which has all the possible areas of concern and their instant remedy too.
Yet, people had their issues while booking the cab. First, at the initial time of India launch, quite at times, the google map shall not show the cab driver the right way to approach your pick-up point, and customers needed to call the cab guy, and direct him how to reach them. it really used to be lot annoying and frustrating in initial times, and lot of valuable time used to get lost in the bargain, besides living in uncertainty whether he will come or he shall cancel the trip. Customers complained, Drivers complained.........and Company listened. They revisited their processes in that respect, and worked on improving pick-up location, which now has started showing other nearby options, so that we chose the precise location where we are standing. And lo.....issue resolved, adding to customer's delight. No more calling the drivers from your balcony and guiding him where to reach.
Similarly, at times, when many customers are booking cab, especially at Airport, Railway station, Movie Theater etc, wrong people, intentionally or unintentionally, board the cab, depriving the bonafide traveler the trip, leading to complaints. Company once again revisited their processes and introduced the system of verifying the code confirmation between customer and driver, before cab driver starts the trip. Lo....issue resolved once again.....no more such complaints.
Another issue of concern for the customers used to be annoying behaviour of some drivers, where customers at best could only give him poor rating at the end of the trip. I am sure Uber would have tried talking out to such drivers, but probably that didn't showed any marked improvement. Company than revisited their processes, and instead of rating, they introduced the concept of pre-fixed Tip amount, where a customer, if he so desires, can pay the Tip amount to driver if he is happy with his trip. In anticipation of getting Tip, customers noted marked behaviour of drivers, and there is no more complaint of lousy drivers. Complaint resolved.
Similarly, the cab drivers also had problem while concluding the trip, as many a times customer doesn't have sufficient balance in their Paytm wallet or credit/debit card didn't work, and/or customer didn't had enough cash with him to pay for the trip, and both cab driver and customer are left fuming at each other at the end of the trip. Again Company revisited their processes, and introduced a concept of drawing out the fare amount, and holding that in its reserves before the cab driver starts the trip. That crucial step in the process completely took away such possibilities of not having enough money to settle the trip at the drop point. And lo.......one more issue resolved from driver's point of view.
Be aware, therefore, that what separates a great company from a good company is how they handle customer resolutions, and how effectively they upgrade their processes to plug such gaps.
So, be you a stray reader, the Company Owner, the CEO, or a Customer Support Officer (CSO), have a fresh perspective when you receive a complaint next time.......for it enables you to revisit your processes and re-tune the same with customer in mind, churn out a delightful experience for the customer and help retain a customer relationship, and rather expand on their network.
Complaint, like a coin, has two sides. The flip side has Feedback written on it. And appreciate, Feedback is a very expensive gift. - from customer to company. Value it, cherish it, for it leads to safer and pleasurable destinations.