How to turn customer complaints into strong customer relationships

1. Customer alchemy
Turning complaints into golden opportunities

2. Complaints: not problems but opportunities
There are particular drivers in your industry/business that make
this outlook particularly valuable.
•Providing insight led innovation to grow the business
•Becoming more customer centred

3. Ryanair
‘Ryanair, the World’s most hated airline, are a bunch of
lying ‘bastardos’ who talk up their customer service
statistics to give us the impression they are providing
satisfaction.’
I hate Ryanair.com

4. Net-a-porter
“I placed an order with Net-A-Porter.com on a
Thursday and paid an extra 20 dollars for over night
shipping. …I said well you didn't fulfill the overnight
and they refused to refund the 20 overnight shipping
charge. They where rude and called me back several
times to insure the point that they where not going to
refund my 20 dollars. This was my first and last
purchase with them.”

5. Antennagate
‘They have not handled this well at all and they have
turned this into a bigger problem than it needed to be,”
Van Baker
senior vice president of research, Gartner.
Massive complaints, initial dismissive response led
to backlash on Twitter
•Apple forced to deliver apology and press conference
•Refunds offered for people still unhappy
•Apple in danger of damaging its “rock star image
•Made national news headlines in a matter of hours
•Demonstrated need for companies to react quickly to
problems before Facebook and Twitter escalate issues to
national and international coverage

6. Wow Bao
“Going to 'business' dinner
(at)Wow Bao. Can any1 tell me if
it's going to suck as much reviews
suggest.” Tony Bosco, Twitter
When Tony Bosco saw mostly negative reviews about the restaura
Wow Bao, he Tweeted:
"Going to 'business' dinner (at)Wow Bao. Can any1 tell me if it's
going to suck as much reviews suggest.“
And almost immediately he got a response from an unexpected
source — BaoMouth, the official
The restaurant offered him a coupon to find out for himself, on the
house. Wow Bao sent Bosco two $15 gift cards via an iPhone app,
and Bosco went the next night, posting pictures of the food on
Twitter."I would say it made it a little more exciting," said Bosco, 34
"That immediate interaction”

7. Pret A Manger
“At the end of the day, all we do is sell
sandwiches. What really matters is the service. People
can see through the bullshit – they judge you by what
you do.” Anson Read, store manager
“I like coming here because I get
served by human beings.”
The entire team receives a bonus worth about £30 a week if the shop scores
well in the weekly ‘mystery shopper’ report
Under-performers stand out and teams don’t want them, in a sense there is a
social contract between members of a team rather than between the company
and each employee
Managers have complete autonomy and spending authority to resolve
problems
Similarly, staff can discard substandard ingredients or even completed but
unsatisfactory sandwiches on their own say-so

8. Innocent smoothies

9. First Direct
• Changed the perception of banks
• Recruit the right people
• “Every single customer has individual needs
• “Magical rapport”
“You can see through a script.
What we are asking is for people to be themselves.”
“First Direct spends an incredible amount of time trying
to understand the market and the customers. It is
designed around the customers. It’s no different
online.”
Claire Dunston, Markeing innovations Manager

10. John Lewis
• The five principles for John
Lewis
• Make staff care about
customer service
• Teach protocol - but
empower staff to make
decisions themselves
• Make sure front-line staff
feedback on what customers
want
• Be exceptional
• Maintain customer service
levels online
‘When a deluge of snow blanketed the country in December 2009, a
certain John Lewis in Buckinghamshire realised that closing its doors
as normal and sending customers into the blizzard would be callous.
Instead, it decided to host an impromptu mass sleepover. It made up
its beds and let more than 100 people stay the night, laying on food
for everyone and opening up toys for the kids to play with.”
"They (frontline staff) have insights no one else can
form. It's tempting to feel that once the information
has been gathered, the job is done. But your
processes and culture need to be altered as a
result."
vs.

11. Lens 1: Trends

12. Customer empowerment
‘Customer empowerment’ – complaining is your right and the move from
1:1 to many means an army can be mobilized in minutes

13. ‘Everywhere
communication’
Ubiquitous communication – mobile/smart phones means that anywhere
and everywhere can provide a feedback/feedout moment

14. Real time publishing
Real time publishing – Blogs, Twitter,
Facebook means that your experience can
be out there instantly (long before you
have cooled down)

15. Distrust of organisations

16. Ever expanding consumer choice
In a world where there are easily accessed
alternatives, customers churn if you give them
a reason businesses

17. Lens 2: Business opportunities
Complaints offer huge opportunities as wel
as obvious threats for businesses

18. Free customer research
Receive, hear, internalise and act upon
pure and unspun insight

19. Bring customer focus to life
Use complaints as a stimulus to multidisciplinary
teams and run ideation sessions to enhance
product lines

20. Develop ongoing relationships
Build on the fact that the customer has initiated
the “conversation” to maintain dialogue

21. Build customer
centred IT systems
to support complaints and customer centricity

22. Develop self reinforcing processes

23. Develop &
recruit
The skills, competences and capabilities
that make you into an ultra competitive, ultra
responsive service organisation

24. Use complaints as KPIs
It’s not about reducing complaints it’s about increasing
feedback by ensuring the channels are both in place and
communicated to consumers. Level of post complaint
customer satisfaction is the key measure of success

25. Lens 3: Brand experience

26. Brand service
Calls must be a positive brand experience on every
conceivable level. Utilise the brand essence to drive a
multisensory experience. Staff members should reflect the
brand personality

27. Brand environment
Background music should be brand appropriate

28. Brand communication
Language should
Enhance perceptions
Strengthen bond with brand
Provide a positive experience customers will tell others about
Give permission for the brand to continue the conversation

29. Lens 4: Customers

30. Current reasons for customer complaints
Source: Top 10 US companies: Groubal

31. What are the emotional
triggers for a complaint?
Feeling
Ripped off
Disappointed
Taken advantage of
Embarrassed
Stupid
Angry
Patronised
Frustrated

32. What are their fears?
Being
Unable to express their POV
Patronised
Humiliated
Ignored
Belittled
Stuck in the system
Fobbed off
Powerless
Not worth it, they won’t do anything
No response

33. What are their hopes?
Acknowledgment
Apology
Assurance of no repeats
To deal with someone senior enough to
take action
To be listened, to be heard and
understood
For you to take responsibility and
ownership for the problem
To be compensated/reimbursed
To be thanked for taking the time
For action to be taken
To be kept ‘in the loop’
To be able to feel they have ‘won’

34. What leads to a positive experience?
Empathy
Authenticity
Flexibility
Appropriate and timely action
Exceeding expectations
Feedback until resolution
Respectful ongoing dialogue

35. Key behaviours
• Never take it personally
• Don’t ignore complaints
• Offer to replace faulty products immediately
• Always try to offer something to a
dissatisfied customer
• When all else fails ask your customer what
they would do
• Always thank complainants for their input

36. Lens 5: Technology
•

37. CUSTOMER
DATABASE
Broadcast channels
Print media
TV
Radio etc
Interactive Channels
Web
Social media/P2P
SMS
Email
Call centre
Interactive Devices
PC
Mobile
Smart phone
Kiosk
iPad
INSIGHT
RULES
CREATIVITY
Multiple channels
Make it as easy as possible to connect them to a real person
whilst developing insight into customer segment preferences
to ensure you are there for them - when, where and how they
like to be contacted

38. 3rd Parties
NEW/IMPROVED
PRODUCTS/SERVICES
INNOVATIONCREATIVITY
SEGMENTED/
MICRO TARGETTED
COMMUNICATIONS
The Business
BRIEFS REPORTS KPI’s/MIS NEEDS
INSIGHT
CUSTOMER
DATABASE
REFINEMENT OF DATA
THROUGH
COMPLAINTS/DIALOGUE
CAPTURE/ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL
MEDIA
Insight into action
Use the ever increasing cycle of info into
insight to refine products and “comms”
whilst driving reports for retailers,
shareholders and other stakeholder
groups and MI/KPI for the business

39. Recommendation
• Drive every inbound communication to a free, brand appropriate, refreshingly delightful,
loyalty inducing HUMAN INTERACTION
• So to give good customer service
– Get the right people
– Set clear, ambitious standards
– Train them properly
– Give them constant, objective feedback
– Link their rewards to long-term quality service
– Above all respect them as individuals and let them be themselves
• And remember that companies don’t give good service, people do