Last week I wrote a blog about “How to Complain Effectively to Get a Credit or Refund from a Company“. I talked about escalating your complaint until you are satisfied with the resolution. At some point you may need to circumvent the typical complaint process and contact someone in senior management directly. How do you find out the best person to speak with in the company?
Identifying the right person to speak with can make the difference between a quick and satisfactory resolution and hours relegated to ‘complaint hell’ where nothing makes much sense and you seem to have to keep repeating yourself to different people who cannot or will not help you. One outstanding source for this kind of information is the president’s assistant.
The president’s assistant often knows more about who does what in the organization than the president does. If you treat the assistant with respect and are calm when explaining your situation, they are usually more than happy to find out whom you should be speaking with and put you in touch with that person. When an employee gets a request from the president’s assistant they often treat it as if it is coming from the president him/herself, so ask if he/she wouldn’t mind copying you on an email to the person you should speak with. That should do the trick, but if it doesn’t, ask the assistant if you could write an email to the president and have the assistant bring it to his/her attention.
