Everyone has dissatisfied or disgruntled and complaining customers and clients. Businesses have them, organizations have them, government certainly has them, and, unfortunately both employees and employers have them.
Anyone offering ideas, information, skills, services or products has obligations:
- The first obligation is to what is being offered – to make sure that what is being offered is presented in the best possible manner, given the limitations of time, space, effort, and/or money. These limitations should not be used as excuses for a poor presentation.
- The second obligation is to give customers enough choices (more than one of two or yes or no but not so many as to confuse customers) so they believe that in making their decision to buy or not they have made the best decision. If customers sense they are not being given enough options, they will delay their decision until they find the right options to satisfy their needs.
This is called giving customers a “marketplace,” a place where they see what their options are. A marketplace can be in time, location, space, size, color, material, effort, services, or money. There are almost 100 ways to make a marketplace.
- The third obligation is to make sure one’s customers are never embarrassed for accepting or, even, contemplating accepting what is offered. If a customer thinks they will be embarrassed for buying or even contemplating buying or accepting what is offered that they will not bring it before their family, friends, associates, acquaintances, customers/clients. Often this is because the business did not give the customer the information necessary to use in their presentation when relating their experience. The result may be that the customer will bad-mouth the business, the business’s presentation and the products much to the detriment of the business and the business’s products.
Conversely, customers have three obligations,
- To pay for what was received as agreed in time, space, effort, and/or money.
- To expect, and possibly demand, that everything be presented in its best possible manner.
- To complain if they don't like the way they were treated or the way something was presented.
When a Customer comes in to complain, they are exercising their obligation to whomever is offering the idea, information, skill, service or product. When an employee receives a complaint from their supervisor, the supervisor is exercising their obligation to the employee. When management receives a complaint from their employee, the employee is exercising their obligation to their management.
No one likes complaints. If a business doesn't have complaints, it's not doing anything . . . and that will bring on the complaint from someone that the business isn't doing anything.
An adage is, every business deserves the customers they have. By this, it is meant that when one has a demanding customer one has to understand why that person is so demanding. There could be many reasons:
- The customer does not believe they are getting "added-value" -- they want to get more than they are paying for or, as with a complainer, they want to pay less, i.e., complaining with the idea that they will get their money back.
- They have a problem, they are being challenged by someone else and in order to come up with an answer to alleviate the problem they will be take that problem back to the seller. This is known as the-squeaky-wheel-that-gets-the-grease syndrome.{/li]
- They have been sent on a mission to come back with the “right” (in someone else’ mind) and they believe something or someone is getting in the way. Hence, they will be “punished” i.e. embarrassed for not having the information wanted.
- It could be that they had "buyer's remorse" in that they could not justify their purchase without getting something additional from the seller that would give them the "power" to justify the purchase.
