Re: Another lousy Borland experience

"Jolyon Smith" wrote

1 unhappy customer whose complaint is handled to their satisfaction
is worth more than 100 customers who never had to make a complaint
in the first place.

A customer who demands $500 in support for each $100 they spend is a $400
loss. And some will.

But that 1 customer who was hacked off but who had their complaint
handled and their grievance addressed will delight in telling anyone who
will listen about the way they managed to get a result in their favour -

This is the rationale for occasionally taking the $400 loss above, but it
has its limits. It may be more likely that they will continue to bad mouth
you to any one who will listen no matter what you do--about how hard it was
to get minimally acceptable service for a piece of sh*t product that they
were crazy to put that much effort into to start with, and still isn't worth
the money or aggrevation they invested. An incredible saga of themselves as
both aggrieved victim and conquering hero, who managed at last to 'force'
you to give him what he wanted. Whatever accommodation you mke can be spun
either as too little, too late, or else into a tale of how he made out like
a bandit and played you for a chump--depending on how he's trying paint
himself at the moment. You can't fix stupid, and you often can't fix rude.

more so if they realise that they didn't have a valid complaint in the
first place after all.

That demands a level of self-reflection that eludes some folk.

But if you turn your back on that customer either because they are wrong
or rude to you, all they will do is bad-mouth your organisation, and
they won't be mentioning the bit where they realised they were wrong or
were offensive to your customer service staff.

Many may realize this, some never will. Turning your organization inside out
in the vain attempt to satisfy everyone is a simple a waste of money better
spent on the majority customer.

Businesses should make every reasonable effort to resolve customer
complaints and problems. While the question of what constitutes 'reasonable'
might be debatable, it's necessity in that last sentence is not.

bobD


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