The release of ZingTrain’s second training DVD Zingerman’s 5 Steps for Effectively Handling Complaints has, not surprisingly, gotten me thinking a lot about what a big difference it makes when a complaint is handled well. So many organizations do such a poor job with complaints that there is a tremendous competitive advantage in getting it right. Handling complaints well is one of the keys to customer loyalty, and in the current economy staying connected to customer is more important than ever.

When people have a complaint about our businesses but don’t tell us, we don’t have a chance to remedy the situation. And just because they haven’t complained to us doesn’t mean they aren’t complaining. On the contrary, they’re probably complaining loudly—to their friends, family and colleagues, a.k.a. other customers or prospective customers.

Why don’t people complain to the business or organization they’re unhappy with? Usually, I think, it’s because it doesn’t seem worth the trouble. All too often a complaint is met with disinterest, defensiveness—even hostility. But if we handle complaints well, our customers WILL let us know when there is a problem. In fact, getting a reputation for handling complaints well usually means that you hear more complaints—but I’d argue that’s a better problem than not hearing them.

We’ve been teaching Zingerman’s 5 Steps to Effectively Handling Complaints for about 20 years now, and it’s a recipe that works—both for us and for the many other organizations that have adopted (or adapted) it for their own use. Just in case you haven’t memorized our recipe, I’ll recap it here:

Zingerman’s 5 Steps to Effectively Handling Complaints

• Acknowledge the complaint. When people complain, more than anything else, they want to be heard. If they know we’re listening, their stress level goes down—and so does ours.
• Sincerely apologize. We don’t need to know exactly what happened in order to apologize. If someone is complaining, we know that they didn’t have the great experience that we wanted them to have, so we apologize. Because regardless of what happened, we are truly sorry that they are dissatisfied. This is not the place for excuses, jokes or explanations. Just genuine remorse.
• Make it right. Research shows that customer satisfaction and loyalty are significantly higher when a complaint can be resolved on the first contact. So at Zingerman’s we authorize our staff to do whatever it takes to make things right for the customer. Usually the employee knows what needs to be done, and we want them to take action. If they need to ask for help, that’s OK—but we request that they become the customer’s advocate and explain the situation to the supervisor or manager, so that the customer doesn’t have to repeat his story over and over.
• Say thanks. As the research shows, at least half of the time people don’t complain—and don’t give us the chance to resolve the problem. So we do really appreciate those who let us know what’s going on and have faith that we’ll take care of them.
• Write it up. It’s easy to react emotionally to complaints and be tempted to change products, systems or processes in reaction to the most vocal complainers. But when we document complaints in a way that allows us to collect some objective data, we often get a different picture of where to focus organizational time and resources. Although we want our customers to let us know when there’s a problem, we also want to fix recurring problems—and eliminate the mistakes that are leading to complaints. Zingerman’s form for documenting complaints is called a Code Red. We’ve been using a paper version for years and are in the process of phasing in an electronic option as well. (See ZingTools.)

I would like to suggest that there has never been a better time to make sure that we—and everyone we work with—are doing a great job of handling complaints. Complaints about our service and our products, of course, but also complaints about the unfairness of life—losing jobs, increased financial pressures, the energy that’s being channeled into just getting by.

We say that Zingerman’s Recipe for Handling Complaints works for complaints of any kind. So I’ve been thinking about using it in the context of customers, friends and colleagues who complain about life’s hardships and realizing that none of us—or our staff—are immune from those hardships ourselves. So the chance that we’ll react negatively to someone unloading on us—that we’ll find ourselves in that “this isn’t fair” frame of mind—is higher than it might have been a year ago. Which is all the more reason to actively review, teach and use these 5 Steps!

Hope spring is off to a good start for you. Let us know how you’re doing!