Living on the Moon?

"There, customer complaints are viewed as a gift," says Stella Walsh!

During the summer Stella Walsh, NfCG's Food Network co-ordinator, attended the launch of the National Complaints Culture Survey 2000, which had been undertaken on behalf of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) by a management consultancy group Time Management International (TMI). The invitation was accepted with pleasure, as she did not know what ICS was, did not know what to expect, and wanted to find out more. This is what she found out:

In terms of a nice afternoon and a lovely lunch my expectations were surpassed. Quentin Wilson, Broadcaster, from the BBC 2 car programme, introduced the presentations in a delightful manner. He noted that he was a consumer advocate and had frequently used TV to raise the issue of unfair competition and high prices for motor vehicles in the UK; with limited success, some may feel. He was therefore delighted to present the speakers who would give details of the survey undertaken, which indicated amazing results.

Meanwhile, Richard Brennan, Managing Director of TMI, host of this elegant lunch party, was nipping out to do television interviews to raise the. profile of the work. You could almost hear the PR machine working overtime. After a lovely meal and interesting speeches, I was dying to know what this piece of research was going to offer., I also felt more relaxed as I had the opportunity to ask other delegates, not the total 160 present, but some of the great and good, if they had previously known what ICS was and TMI also. I was relieved to find that I was not the only ignorant person in the room, and in fact it seems we were nearly all there for the free lunch!

Finally - the survey.

This was a survey undertaken to determine the culture of complaints procedures within organisations. Two hundred organisations from eight sectors were approached to take part in the study. Staff from 44 organisations were used in the final sample, 156 companies declining to take part for reasons not fully explained.

Summary

A summary of the results was presented in a very strange manner. The research had been introduced as a survey on the complaints culture so it was confusing to be given information about the number of times customers complained, 44% of people surveyed said they complain most or all of the time - a huge increase since the mid 80s. Good on them, I would say, but what of the culture and how are complaints dealt with? A report was given to each delegate at the end of the lunch that made some of this much clearer. The questionnaire had two focus areas:

• as a customer receiving service
• as an employee providing the service.
• Some of the results were identified as follows:
• Organisational readiness
• Intellectual understanding of the importance of complaints is not backed up in practice
• Complaints may be monitored but are not used to educate or improve
• Organisations are perceived to pay lip service
• to customers and their complaints.
• Employee readiness People do their best but feel untrained, unsupported and discouraged
• Front-line people face as many battles internally as hassle from external customers
• Senior management are often unaware of the real situation at the fingertips of their organisations - and are shocked when they find out.

These are just a few of the main findings. None of the information was a great surprise; in fact it is disappointing that companies still regard customers who complain as moaning. The TMI team then continued with a rather complex method of scoring companies into performance categories. The criteria this was based on appear to be very subjective and certainly unclear.

This is an extremely interesting area and one in which very little research has been previously undertaken. However the sample was very limited and the conclusions that had been drawn from the work seemed confusing to me. Seeking to find out the customer view at the same time as the organisational culture had rather muddied the outcome.

The final conclusion was however one which very few companies that I deal with have yet to recognise, "Customer Complaints are a Gift". A nice touch - the final report was presented to each individual in a gift box with a fancy bow.

I am currently in the midst of a complaint to a major car company that quite frankly could not care less and has not taken up the idea that all I want is an apology and a bunch of flowers; they certainly do not see me as a little gift. I will however cease to buy this brand in the future. The current philosophy is that the company should "live the brand". Well, this company, and, it follows, the brand, sucks and maybe the quote from the research fits the car brand I am dealing with:

"Our staff are as far from ' Living the Brand' as they are from 'Living on the Moon' ".

So many companies take their customers for granted and they are light years yet from viewing complaints as a gift. There was a short discussion about the professional complainer but the companies still fail to get the point that if only they got the product and service right, as advertised, customers would not need to complain. The final quote from the survey " The UK has huge potential for improvement" is one with which I can heartily agree.

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