Would you believe twenty-six to one?

Would you believe that, on average, for every one customer you have that complains there are 26 more who will not communicate their dissatisfaction to your directly. More importantly, don’t think those 26 people are not complaining. Each of them will tell an average of sixteen other people about their bad experience with your firm.

The minimal number of complaints received vs. the volume of negative response to your organizational image is typically referred to as the “tip of the iceberg” phenomena. The statistical justification for use of this descriptive tag is clearly indicated when you consider that one complaint represents 432 negative impressions.

By the time you hear a particular complaint three times, the problem has been mentioned to an average of 1,296 people. It must be considered, how many people have to complain about a given issue before you take action to permanently remedy a problem?

It costs five times as much to attract a single new customer as it does to keep an old one. That is important to keep in mind when you consider that ninety-one percent of your unhappy customers will never buy from you again. This can be turned around by making a focused effort to remedy your customers’ complaints which results in 82 percent of them staying with you.

When people complain, it is vitally important that you communicate an attitude which says “I want to understand the problem so I can fix it and make you happy.” You must not become defensive if you want to solve the problem and maintain that customer relationship.

Questions to ask for the most positive customer response include:

1. “What has happened?” This question should be asked calmly and with genuine concern.
2. “What should have happened?” It is critical that you clearly understand the customer’s expectations before you can attempt to satisfactorily correct the problem
3. “What can I do to make it right?” The angriest customers is likely to be calmed by this inquiry.

This story was prepared based on an in depth study by Technical Assistance Research Programs of Washington, D.C.