Complaining about customers and clients seems to go with the business territory. We can’t figure out why they don’t fill out their order forms correctly, meet deadlines, or contact us during our business hours. BUT, is it always the other person’s fault? If you are finding that routine problems keep popping up, it might mean you need to take a look at how you are doing business.
The easiest thing is to blame someone else, why can’t they just do things right? However, if people are complaining about your web site, or are unable to figure out how to place an order or how to get a hold of you—you might need to take these complaints under advisement and see if there are improvements you need to make to make things more customer-friendly.
Years ago, when I was working as a consultant for the first time, I started getting some complaints from clients that I wasn’t responding quickly enough to their messages or that their phone messages weren’t getting returned at all. While it irritated me, I had to finally admit that I needed to get a separate phone line and cell phone instead of having one phone for business and family. It had worked fine when my children were younger but as they got older and started to use the phone more, messages were getting lost. I had to adjust and admit that it wasn’t just whining clients—but a real problem in how I was doing business.
It helps to keep track of complaints and comments so that you can see if there is a pattern. While I wrote the other day about being able to take complaints with a grain of salt, I do think that if the same ones are popping up again and again, there may very well be some validity to them and we need to take a look at our operations to see if there is room for improvement.
Also: Learning on the Job
What Are People Saying About You?