A Complaint Is a Gift, : How to Learn from Critical Feedback and Recover Customer Loyalty

"The third edition of this bestseller (over 275,000 copies sold) builds on the tested formula that helps organizations recognize the value of complaints using updated examples and concepts in the age of COVID-19. The first edition of A Complaint Is a Gift introduced the revolutionary notion that customer complaints are not annoyances to be dodged, denied, or buried but are instead valuable pieces of feedback-not to mention your best bargain in market research. Complaints provide a feedback mechanism that can help organizations rapidly and inexpensively strengthen products, service style, and market focus. Most importantly, complaints that are well received create customer loyalty. This new edition condenses the tried and true eight-step formula into a tighter, more efficient three-step formula. From her work with clients, the author has updated industry-specific complaint examples and added in new concepts, such as a process that enables employees to handle complaints with increased emotional resilience-something that is sorely needed since dealing with increasingly difficult customers is a common occurrence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Handling complaints doesn't have to be a negative, soul-crushing experience. Janelle Barlow gives the right tools to treat each of them as a source of innovative ideas that can transform your business"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Introduction: Complaints—A Pathway to Keep Customers Chapter One: What Exactly Are Complaints? Chapter Two: How We Tell Customers Not to Complain Chapter Three: Five Reasons Why Complaints Are Gifts Chapter Four: Putting the Gift Formula into Action Chapter Five: Using the Gift Formula to Its Maximum Chapter Six: Complaints Passed by Word of Mouth Chapter Seven: Upset and Aggressive Customers Chapter Eight: Developing Mental Fortitude Chapter Nine: The World Has Changed—Internet Complaints Chapter Ten: Staying Connected to What Is Happening Online Chapter Eleven: Give a Gift When You Complain Conclusion: Next Steps from Top to Bottom Notes In Memoriam Index A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z About the Author