Handle complaints swiftly or face more of them
- Tue, November 01 2011
- Filed under: Marketing essentials
Roger Dooley of Neuromarketing blog has a great post on the contagious nature of complaints. Negative impressions have a way of spreading, says Roger, even when they aren’t valid.
He tells this story of an experiment by Martin Lindstrom, author of Brandwashed:
We set up a table in the middle of the restaurant, and four actors were hired to pretend to be friends sharing the conviviality of a meal. They all ordered the soup, since it was the only starter on the menu, thus allowing an element of control. After breaking some bread and taking his first mouthful, one of the actors called for the waiter and proceeded to deliver a three-minute rant about the scalding temperature of the soup. As the soup continued to be served to the other tables, the complaints began rolling in. By the end of the dinner, 26% of the guests had made similar complaints. Each bowl had come from the same pot, so either they had extremely sensitive tongues or they had all been influenced by the initial complaint.
Negativity spreads fast. Take the “nocebo” effect as another example from Roger—subjects given placebo pills with no side effects will report nausea if they’re told they might have that side effect.
In other words, if people expect something to be bad, they will experience it as bad.
As Roger says, watch out for contagious negativity: “Fix the problem. Apologize. Anything you can do to mute the complaining quickly will prevent contagious dissatisfaction from spreading.” (I can wait till Roger’s book comes out.)
That’s good advice. React swiftly and graciously to criticism on social media, in your office and around town.
Comments
This story is really interesting to read for. Great experiment by Martin Lindstrom, author of Brandwashed! I would like to thank you for sharing such educational post. 
Great post Katya! I really appreciate you bringing this up because I feel that criticism is the hardest stuff for us to deal with. Our emotions get mixed in, and it’s tough to separate yourself from your feelings and reply in a way that’s constructive, and not defensive. Because it’s so hard, I think we hope that ignoring the problem will make it go away. Sometimes that strategy works, but more often than not, it doesn’t. What’s your best advice for how to reply to complaints?
Holly, you got that right. Complaints are hard to take! But it’s critical to reply in the right way. First, respond promptly in the venue where the complaint occurred (email, twitter, etc.) Thank the person sincerely for alerting you to the fact they haven’t had a good experience. Say you are very glad they let you know because it’s important to understand when you’ve fallen short for them. (You may have to grind your teeth while doing this, but do it anyway!) In a nondefensive way, explain why things happened as they did if—it’s a complaint about how you do things. Then say they’ve given you insight into how that might be less the optimal for them. If it’s possible to address their concern, go out of your way to do so. If you can’t, tell them you heard them and will think about the situation in the future when making decisions.
If you can’t reply in this way, then take the time to cool off and answer when you can. A late but measured response is better than an off-the-cuff defensive one.