Customer Reviews

A Complaint Is a Gift: Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My complaints are mainly with tour companies, airlines, and hotels. My letters and emails go unanswered, especially when I travel with European tour companies. So reading this book helped me to understand how businesses think and approach them in a positive way.

The author gives clever and informative guidelines so that next time I have a serious complaint I will know how to address the company making sure that I get positive results and they accept my criticism as an opportunmity for improvement.

The author's style is personable and entertaining as she gives lots of examples on why one should complain and how companies must alter their preceptions of complaints.

I've had some terrible experiences with companies in the past but now I have the tools to get results. Companies and businesses should use this book as a textbook.

I have been in customer service for many years and am always looking for literature to further educate myself to improve what I do for a living. The book was very good but didn't tell me anything I already knew. This book would be an excellent read for someone just starting in customer service.

Thank you.

Perry Bruno

Bravo! I found this book readable, intelligent, and highly
informative. The chapter on the personal side of Complaints Handing
is important to all those who feel that their value as a customer is
dismissed and want to learn how to best structure a letter or phone
call that works. While this is certainly not a self-improvement
book, it does give the reader insights into the managerial mind of
companies. And it will help you to improve!

When things go wrong, most of us want to run and hide. But wait! These embarrassing moments can be among the most positive and powerful for your business and your career. Barlow and Moller reveal why a complaining customer can is valuable asset. And they show you exactly how to win your customer back, win a lot more business and get positive testimonials, too! If success in business is important to you, you want to read this book!

I can strongly recommend the new edition of this book since I use it. Using a methodology outlined is not only instructive but simple.The author defines the steps a manager must make when dealing with a complaining customer. Barlow and Moller encourage businesses to evaluate the standards that are important to them and follow certain rules to not only satisfy the customer but keep the customer coming back. And that's the most important thing for a business to strive for - the returning customer.

"A complaint is a gift" is probably *the* classic in complaint handling for organizations. The book attempts to change the attitude towards complaints. Instead of seeing complains as annoying, organizations should see them as "gifts", meaning feedback because with this feedback they have an opportunity to become better companies and retain their customers.

The book consists of three different parts. The first part covers complains. Where do they come from? Why do people complain? Are they negative or positive? The goal of the first part is to change your mindset towards complaining from annoying to gifts.

The second part gives more concrete advise on how to actually deal with complains. It introduces one major theme in the book, which the authors call "the gift formula" which is a 8-step method for responding to complains. The method uses steps to respect the customer, take the complain serious and actually take action towards it. This forumula is giving in the first chapter, the other chapters then discuss about different concrete situations.

The third part covers 2 chapters which are just grouped together. The first chapter talks about how to respond when complains are personal and from close people. This is a lot harder, but also here the feedback can be useful for improving yourself. The second chapter turns it around and discusses how to complain.

I found the book useful, yet at times I felt slightly bored with how it was written. I'm not quite sure why, maybe it was the speed that wasn't fast enough. The point of the book is very relevant though and I wish more service providers have read and used the points in this book. The book is a classic, yet it didn't wow me and thus *only* four stars.

"Punish your processes, not your people."

The authors (Barlow and Moller) point out that staff and managers frequently misunderstand complaints as being criticism against particular individuals. Instead, they should recognize that virtually every complaint, whether it names an individual or product, is actually describing an internal business process that is not working.

For example, if you have disengaged employees who are alienating customers, it points to ineffective HR or management processes. If you have a product with safety issues, it points to flawed engineering or QA processes. The complaint allows you to identify the broken or ill-designed process and take steps to correct it.

However, it should be noted that in many cases, the broken process is actually staff training. For example, a QA process may indeed be very robust, but if employees are not trained appropriately on how to identify quality problems and how to rectify them, quality issues will arise.

The authors stress that service recovery (such as satisfying one customer's complaint about a missed reservation) does not mean quality improvement unless the underlying process is also addressed as part of the service recovery. Almost every service recovery should be examined for possible training needs.

The book recommends that companies adopt a healthy response to complaints, seeing them as valuable insights into how customers view your company's processes, information you would normally have to use an expensive focus group to obtain.

A disappointed new edition. Content-wise, prefer 1st edition much better than this much anticipated 2nd, revised edition. Really want to ask for refund!!

The framework of the book is basically the same like the 1st edition, but content-wise, it is a watered-down version, which touches upon e-complaints, impact of web 2.0 and blogging on complaint management too lightly and not in-depth enough. Try Citizen Marketers and Creating Customer Evangelists--much much
better written and more up-to-date, and both have refreshing point of views on customer complaints.

Two previous important chapters on "building a complaint-friendly service culture" and "company policy and organization system-building on complaint handling" are ripped out (which are very important concepts and tools for first edition readers). This new edition is launched after 12 years, but the authors did not introduce any revolutionary ideas on complaint handling and their points of views are a bit too dated and overly common-sensical, such as valuing customers, treating customers well to attract loyal customers (many ideas are already known and are cliche ideas from the 80s/90s--TQM, Total Service Excellence Era).

This book is a bit "academic"--more about the "why" than the "how" of complaint handling. Part One, the first 5 chapters are the boring "why" chapters, whereas Part Two starts to talk about the "hows". Part Three on Personal side of Complaints Handing is a bit out of context (this should be a business book, not suddenly a personal self help or self-improvement book!). The last chapter teaches customers how to complain effectively, and even encourage customers to become "complaint activist". This should be a book fully on complaint handling, not suddenly "How To Complain Effectively?". These 2 chapters are most boring and difficult to get through.

Many customers complain easily these days. The Chapter on "Why Most Customer Don't Complain" is a bit dated and illogical. If customers don't complain easily and more often, how come the authors suggested that the complaint rate is sky-rocketing in the US (or at least in the hotel or airline industries), and internet and blogging have also deepened such phenomenon!? This book tends to stand on the customer side, but not showing enough empathy to the frontline service staff who are currently working under more stress than ever, such as limited manpower and resources, etc. in the age of service automation. There are good and bad customers. Some chapters should be devoted to help frontline service staff to handle unreasonable customers, while not just paying lip service, mostly or totally standing on the side of the customers (pleasing only their corporate clients).

Everyone knows that mishandling complaints could affect the business bottom line. The authors are advisors or arm-chair theorists, who tend to play the teachers' or real life complainers' roles, but do not have actual field experience either as frontline service managers or service staff (except as consultants servicing their clients!), thus failing to provide a balanced view (seeing complaint handling from both customers' and service staff's perspective--and be more fair to the people at the service frontline too).

If you want to read this book, read the 1 st edition (yes, examples are dated, but better written and more insightful reading experience!). Besides, the 1st edition has many used books available which cost only less than $3 to buy, which are much better deal. Read the 2nd edition as the last or second priority!

This is a great follow on from the original Complaint is a Gift. While it keeps the fundamentals of complaint handling it identifies very clearly the impact that new means of communication can have on companies.
With the majority of people expressing doubt as to the worth of complaining directly to a company, the author's chapter on "Why Most Customers Don't Complain" is important. A company should encourage and prefer that an unhappy customer contact them directly, instead of going online and posting a negative review. People do research and a negative review on a number of on-line sites can effectively cause a business to lose a potential customer. There's a wonderful example of poorly handled complaint letters from a New Zealand catering firm. It really makes the point. Lots of food for thought!

I'm inspired by A Complaint is a Gift. It is a marvelous book of practical tools and techniques for ensuring positive customer experiences as well as resolving even the most challenging customer complaints. It is packed full of a tips to provide legendary customer service in even the most trying situations. I've enjoyed watching first-hand how these tools have melted the tension between employees and very difficult customers - creating positive experiences and repeat business. These tools just work, hands down! Employees quickly "get it" and can resolve complaints and provide a positive customer experience. I thank and applaud the author for these proven techniques.