When You Have A Complaint The President’s Assistant Can Be Your Best Resource

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.

How to Complain Effectively to Get a Credit or Refund from a Company

If you’ve ever bought a product or service that did not live up to expectations and asked for a refund or partial credit, you know how frustrating it can be. What do you do when your complaints to customer service don’t get results? You could file a lawsuit and sue the company for recompense, but that is a last resort for most people due to the cost and time commitment involved; unless thousands of dollars are involved it’s usually not worthwhile. There are other ways to get what you want without resorting to litigation.

Contact senior management. Front line workers and customer service reps are often the moat protecting the castle. They are there to resolve simple issues and to dissuade you from further pursuing your complaint. When they tell you there is nothing more “they” can do, it is often technically true – they personally are restricted by the company from doing more, but often the “company” can do more. If you’re not satisfied always ask for a manager. If they tell you they cannot escalate the issue to a manager, insist on it and ask for their name and ID – always record a name and an ID when possible so they’re aware you plan to hold them liable for what they tell you. It’s also useful if you need to speak with the office of the president as they typically want to know that you’ve spoken to customer support and a manager before contacting them.

If customer support won’t transfer you to a manager, contact corporate head office directly and ask, by name, for the VP of Customer Support or VP of Sales or someone with a similar title – check their website for the name of the person who holds this title. Typically the higher up the chain of command you go, the more leeway they will have to resolve your issue. Be persistent. Don’t give up until you feel you have received a satisfactory response, or you don’t have anyone higher up to contact. If necessary contact the “office of the president”.

Threaten without threatening. Blatant threats tend to make people combative. So instead of threatening to sue them, hint at a less-than-beneficial outcome for their company should your situation go unresolved. For instance, if you are speaking with a person in management senior enough to care about the company’s reputation – you might say, “I have pictures of the terrible work your company did. I would rather show the pictures to you and resolve this issue privately, than post the pictures on Facebook or Twitter where your potential customers will likely see them.”

Speak to your credit card company. If you used your credit card for the purchase, your credit card company will sometimes be willing to help resolve a dispute, if not reverse a charge, especially if you have some proof that the company did not give you what you paid for. Merchants do not want to develop a bad reputation with the credit card companies so if you involve them, the company may be more willing to resolve your issue.

Reserve at least 25% of the payment until completion. If at all possible, one strategy that you should keep in mind when purchasing anything of value is to withhold a portion of the payment until the completion of the transaction. Do not make the final payment unless you are completely satisfied. This holds especially true with contractors.

Take a picture. The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” couldn’t be more true when explaining to a company why you don’t think you got what you paid for. If you ordered a product and it arrives broken in the box, take a few photos of it in the box. If someone did a horrible job painting your house, take a photo. There is nothing more descriptive than a picture when trying to resolve a situation like this with company management. And if you ever decide to use mediation or arbitration or go to court, pictures can be very useful evidence.

A few considerations prior to complaining. Prior to speaking with anyone about your situation, concisely record the details of your complaint and know what your ideal resolution is and what you will settle for. You need to explain why you are dissatisfied and what you would like done to correct the problem. Shoot high without being unreasonable. Keep copies of all correspondence with the company.

Post your dispute on eQuibbly. If all else fails simply post your dispute on eQuibbly. You will have a better chance of the company responding on eQuibbly if you provide us with the email address for the VP of Customer Service or a similar position. If you can’t find an email address, eQuibbly may be able to find it for you – use the “Help – Contact Us” tab on the homepage.

Whatever route you choose, keep reminding yourself to be polite but firm. Do not lose your temper or your sense of humor. It will be easier to come to a satisfactory resolution if you are reasonable and fair.

What strategies have worked for you when you complained to a company about their product or service?

Protect Your Brand: Monitoring Complaints with Social Media

Customer service is inherently social.  There is a conversation happening about your company somewhere in the social realm right now, regardless of whether you have an official presence there. A lot of so-called ‘social media blunders’ have actually been ‘customer service blunders’ that gained traction as they were shared across the Net.

Without a solid social media strategy to monitor conversations about your brand and nip complaints in the bud, you risk damaging your company’s reputation and you’re missing out on valuable opportunities to improve your customer loyalty. The following characteristics of social media are those that present great opportunities for customer service – and potential pitfalls to avoid:

It’s public.  One of the greatest advantages of social media is that you can now listen to your customers in real-time and instantly gather feedback. With applications like HootSuite, Tweetdeck, Radian6 and Sysomos, it’s easier than ever to find and listen to what your customers are saying. The world has suddenly become a free-form focus group for any company willing to take advantage of it.

Potential pitfall: Everyone else has the power to listen to you too, so make sure you mean what you say.

It’s fast. Not only can you hear what is relevant now, you can also react more quickly than ever before to prevent your customers getting frustrated.

Potential pitfall: If you miss an opportunity to react, it can be a heavy blow to your brand.

It’s where the action is happening. People are researching and actually purchasing your product in the same place that they are having conversations. Think of how much customer service there is surrounding the point of purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. This is to ensure that customers are getting helpful information that steers them toward a purchase, and so that they have a good experience to pass on. Social media now provides that same guidance to online shoppers.

Potential pitfall: There could be many competing sources of opinions about you and your company – you need to make sure that a customer is hearing what you want them to hear, but you can’t control all of it.

The ripple effect is exponential. Word of mouth has never been so influential. Due to the sheer number of people one individual can reach in a matter of seconds, good news travels fast.

Potential pitfall: Bad news travels faster.

It’s detached. The irony of social media is that it actually strips out a main component of social interaction – being physically present. This encourages very candid conversation that companies never had access to before.

Potential pitfall:  It can grant the extra courage it might take to speak out negatively about something. What that means for a company is that you can quickly grab people’s attention, but you still have to have an overall strategy for customer satisfaction in order to keep them loyal.

It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that there are still human beings looking for a solution to a problem in a simple, personable way. How you address that overall depends on your personality, philosophy, and what you are willing to offer your customers – attention can go a long way to resolving issues.

(Paraphrased excerpts from Molly Privratsky’s post for Radian 6)