RTA Business Complaints Series: Why Do Customers Complain?

As part of the RTA Business Complaints series, this week we get to the root of the problem and ask, just why do customers complain.

Advice from RTA Business: Complaints are Dangerous!

In RTA Business’ experience of helping business owners up and down the country walk away with the best possible deal they can get when they decide it’s time to sell their company, we’ve found that complaints can be detrimental. Rack up enough, and be unlucky enough for a potential buyer to see them? They’ll think your firm has too many issues to handle, and that it’s not worth the effort.

That’s why you need to stop complainers in their tracks. So far we’ve featured articles on how best to do so, and how not to do so, now we want to address the larger issue of why they do so. If you know this, you can stop complainers before they even have a reason to open their mouths.

The Top Five from RTA Business

We’ve seen a lot of businesses deal with customer complaints in our time, and our experience has shown that these are the top five reasons a customer takes to the phone and expresses their dissatisfaction:

1) Faulty Product: The number one reason; if you’ve sold them a faulty product, of course they’re going to complain if only to get their money back.

2) Poor Customer Service: If a customer feels as though their trade isn’t valued, that you’ve sacked them off, they’ll complain out of sheer indignation. People don’t like to feel that their custom is unappreciated.

3) Not As Advertised: if a customer feels that your product or service is not as advertised, they will feel lied to. Nobody likes being lied to, and you can guarantee that they will complain and make sure everyone thinks you’re untrustworthy. A seriously dangerous complaint for your business model.

4) They’ve Been Left Waiting: If you’ve left a customer waiting, it doesn’t matter how effective your service is, or how valued you make them feel, they will complain, because you’ve wasted their time.  As they say, time is money.

5) Because They Can: Some customers will complain simply because they think they can get away with it, or because they’re having a bad day, or because they want their money back after they’ve looked at their bank balance and realised they haven’t got as much as they thought. Nothing you can do really except shut them down.

Once you know why a customer complains, make sure you deal with it before it can ever become a problem that causes a potential buyer to think that your business just isn’t worth the effort.