Having a successful business hopefully means having customer accolades and cheers. It also means customer complaints. Thanks to our amazing staff, we have very few complaints. Our internal scores and feedback mechanisms reiterate the happiness of our customer base. Yet, no company can escape customer concerns nor should they even try. I advocate that companies should embrace and hug each and every customer communication, especially those where we did not perform perfectly.

For Contegix, the most critical reason why customer complaints are healthy related back to our core values. Nearly every complaint touches upon at 3 of our core values – Respect People, Time & Data, Foster Communication Through Transparency, and Rapid Accelerated Growth.

• Respect People, Time & Data – When a person communicates, it means she cares enough to complain which means she is giving up her time. Time is the currency of our lives. Even when this is pure venting or frustration, it is still an individual’s currency and she has chosen to spend it in a manner that allows us to improve the relationship. We owe it to her and ourselves to honor the core value of respecting her time. This is done by actively listening and working to improve on a misstep.
• Foster Communication Through Transparency – Every communication from a customer is a gift to communicate with them in a transparent manner. A complaint is an invitation to open a dialogue. We hear how we performed and where we stand in the customer’s mind and heart. We get to learn what actions missed and hopefully what actions can be taken to make the situation better.
• Rapid Accelerated Growth – This core value is not about growth of the company. It is about growth of our two most important stakeholders – our customers and our talent. As someone who loves what I do, I need to know when I am not as successful as I could be. I need to know when I do not hit the mark. This is why I embrace my annual 360 Review and any event where our staff openly communicates. My natural inclination may be to defend my position. I have come to appreciate the missteps more than any accolades. It gives me an amazing gift to help me personally grow. Complaints from customers are the same. It gives us a chance to grow in our technical and communication skills. Perhaps, we were technically perfect in our performance. Yet, if we failed to communicate well to the customer, it is an opportunity to get better. Everything is training. Everything helps us grow, as individuals. It helps our talented people improve.

It is impossible to have zero customer complaints. The only way to achieve this would be to have zero customers. We are blessed to have very few complaints. It’s how we deal with the few we do get that defines us and our relationship with our amazing customers.