Written by James Patterson - This article posted with permission of Online Success Magazine


Everybody hates it when their customers complain, don't they? Yet the way you deal with a complaint can help you become a business success.

Why do I say this? Because complaints almost always come from people who want to continue dealing with you.

In other words, they tend to come from the very people who will make your business a success.

Most of us don't respond well to complaints. We tend to take them personally, as if our very souls were being attacked!

Our first reaction may well be to hit back, or respond in some other non-productive way.

That first reaction is instinctive.

There's practically nothing we can do about an automatic reaction over which we have no control, and there's no point worrying about it. Give yourself a moment to let it happen, and get it out of your system. Then you can focus on a productive response.

We can't control an automatic reaction to a complaint. We do have control over what we do next. And it's what we do next that matters.

How to deal powerfully with a complaint

Realizing that a complaint isn't a personal attack on you, even when it seems that way, is crucial. Because it allows you to act powerfully.

Let's imagine that Jane sells Joe some advertising, and that it fails to generate even one visitor to Joe's website.

Joe complains to Jane, saying the advertising didn't work. Joe accuses Jane of ripping him off!

This sure sounds like a personal attack. But take a moment, and look at what Joe is really saying here.

It's clear Joe is upset. He's lashing out. He invested some money, and that investment didn't pay off. What Joe is really telling Jane, is that he wants the advertising to work. He has more money to spend, but now he's going to have to find other companies to spend it on.

How could Jane respond to Joe? She could...

1. Argue with Joe (fight)
2. Ignore Joe (flight)
3. Find out what went wrong (think)

Like everything in life, advertising carries inherent risk. There is always a risk that an advertiser won't make money. Every advertiser knows this, no matter what they admit to the ad company.

It's highly likely Joe's ad is poorly written, and links to an equally poor sales page. Joe is blaming the messenger, rather than getting to the source of his advertising problem. There's a good chance Joe has no idea how much better his advertising could be.

Unless something changes, Joe is destined to be another business failure.

Use your expertise

Jane is well placed to help Joe, because she has a lot more experience in advertising.

She could argue, telling Joe it's all his fault because he has a crummy ad. This will certainly cost her a client, and probably increase the bitterness Joe feels towards Jane. She might create a monster who becomes a highly motivated critic of her company. This might cost her several clients.

Jane could choose to ignore him. If she does, she's lost a client.

What if Jane decided to help Joe?

What if she took a good look at his advertising, and properly explained any problems she found. What if she offered to re-run his advertising for free, using a new ad she wrote herself?

If she took this approach, Jane will probably win over a loyal customer. A customer now motivated to sing her praises far and wide. And even if her rewrite doesn't work, Joe is less likely to lash out given the work Jane has put in on his behalf.

A little criticism can go a long way

Your success ultimately depends on only one person. You.

As you run your business from day-to-day, you will upset people. There's nothing you can do to avoid this, no matter how hard you try.

When it happens, don't respond immediately. Don't let your natural fight-or-flight response dictate how you communicate with a complaining client.

Take a moment. Calm down. Recognize what your client is really saying to you, and find out what you can do to turn things around.

It's a curious thing about human nature. We tend to support people who show their humanity by making a mistake, admitting it, and then putting it right.

** While Builder99 did NOT write the above article he is pleased to include it in this growing list of Power-Blog Directory articles

************************************
builder99 has been online since the Last Century
He Likes to Think and he Loves to Write
== Click Here for one of his Reports ==
For Links to other articles he did NOT write ...
== Click Here and do some Thinking of your own ==
************************************
Builder99 says, Enjoy-the-Journey and Sponsor a School