Customer Experience News & Trends

Why customers don’t complain – and why you should get them to do it

If customers don’t complain, they’re happy right? Wrong. Here’s why they don’t complain and why it’s a bigger problem for contact centers.

If dissatisfied customers say nothing, you’ll get a false sense of security. You’ll think everything is fine and they’ll walk without giving you a chance to make what’s wrong right.

Here are the top three reasons customers don’t complain, according to customer complaint guru Guy Winch:

  1. Complaining is a hassle.
  2. I won’t get what I want.
  3. The company doesn’t care anyway.

Surely you do care and will do all you can to help customers get what they want. So the key is to encourage customers to complain. Some ways:

  • Ask for complaints. Say at the end of conversations, “Is there anything you aren’t satisfied with?”
  • Direct customers to complaint avenues. Some customers may not be comfortable blurting out what’s wrong immediately. So remind them where they can give comments and thoughts – an e-mail or text address, website, direct phone line, etc.
  • Send them to the top. Post a name and number where customers can call with complaints. At one point, Home Depot posted a name, and when a customer called for her, whoever answered the call knew it was serious and took immediate action.

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