Not responding is not an option

Published in May 6th, 2009

Recently I reviewed the striking case of a corporation that has ignored over 100 complaints from customers in the past few months (delivered by getclosure!). It is difficult not to become frustrated with the corporation’s attitude. Ignoring customer feedback and turning away business in these volumes seems incomprehensible to me as a businessman.

For a variety of reasons, not all of them logical, some customers will not want to use the complaints process provided by the supplier. Other customers will use the supplier’s complaints process but will not like the process, or its outcome. getclosure! offers a ‘safety net’, giving suppliers a second chance at winning back these unhappy customers.

Bearing in mind these benefits, and that the basic level of the getclosure! service is free; it bemuses us to occasionally come across a supplier who views getclosure! as some kind of threat or to be seeking to extract ‘something for nothing’ from unwary corporations. We appreciate that this view could be the legacy of ‘blackmail’ and ‘whinge’ or ‘gossip’ type ‘consumer complaint’ websites which were popular a few years ago – but getclosure! is not a blackmail or gossip site. If you are uncertain about this, please give us the chance to explain how we differ.

getclosure! is an independent complaints management service. We do not publish complaints and we do not presume to resolve your complaints for you. At the request of consumers, your customers, we forward complaints and facilitate the process of getting the complaint resolved by you. The basic level of the service is free to consumers and to suppliers. A subscription service is available for corporations who want to benefit from customer feedback, management reports and other functionality that we provide. Get in touch to see how we can help you retain your customers.

Quentin is part of the team who dreamed up getclosure! With a background in law, arbitration and business, he has gained extensive experience in technology transfer and IP exploitation and now serves as an advisor to leading hi-tech corporations in several countries. Click here to read more about Quentin.

6 users responded in " Not responding is not an option "

mavrick said, in May 6th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

Quentin I could not agree with you more.

It is startling that some companies do not want to take advantage of the opportunity that getclosure provides to deal with their customers complaints in a discreet online envirnoment.

When will these companies realise that trying to control how their customers complain is incredibly dangerous and in this technological age somewhat foolish.

Let’s hope that companies with this attitude realise this soon.

Quentin Tannock said, in May 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am

Absolutely, and your comment raises an important strategic consideration for consumer facing enterprises: How best to engage with unhappy consumers online? I see corporations moving beyond pragmatism in relation to online forums (‘if you can’t beat them, join them’) to proactively seeking out valuable online forums, and using them to engage and retain customers.

The real winners are the corporations that understand they need to be stakeholders – not just participants – in those forums that work for both them and their customers. On this point – Did you know that getclosure! consistently succeeds in helping corporations resolve over 60% of the complaints that getclosure receives? I have been with getclosure since inception, and this fact still amazes and delights me.

pamsykes said, in May 8th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

Let’s not be coy – name them! If it’s MTN-SP, I’m one of the many who has complained, and got zero response.

It’s not even a case of “not wanting to use the complaints process provided by the supplier”. I can’t *find* their complaints process. I did try their call centre — the only contact option they give their customers — but gave up after 40 mins or so on hold.

It’s a fail all around, and I have no scruples about making my dissatisfaction public. If they can’t be bothered to do me the basic courtesy of answering my phone calls or otherwise responding to my attempts to contact them, then they don’t deserve to be hidden behind a polite screen of “a corporation”.

If it’s not MTN-SP, exactly the same applies to whoever it is.

There’s a bigger issue here: if consumer complaints about our service providers are hidden, we are all disempowered. Would I choose to do business with a company that had a history of ignoring its customers? Probably not. But if I don’t know that, the choice is denied. Once I’m locked into a contract it’s difficult to leave, so the company has no real incentive to pay any attention to me. The only thing that will work is the kind of publicity that loses them potential new customers – THEN they might sit up and pay attention.

Neil Garb said, in May 8th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

I totally agree with you in generality, but in many instances it’s just not practical. Furthermore, I feel it’s an all or nothing situation: you either accept all online complaints or you don’t at all.

I’ve worked closely with Volkswagen SA, who don’t entertain any complaints not made through their call centre, or via email. At first this seemed ridiculous to me, but over time it became apparent that there just wasn’t the man power to handle every single person’s gripe.

The internet is a large, diverse space — there are many many ways to make your voice heard — and this present a sometimes unsurmountable challenge to resource-limited companies. Having said all that, kudos to getclosure for making it easier for companies to get started.

Quentin Tannock said, in May 10th, 2009 at 11:56 am

Thanks Pam,

The getclosure approach is to make the overall performance of the supplier in relation to ‘responsiveness’ public, but not the specifics of your complaint against them.

One reason is that we have to recognise that not every consumer complaint is valid – there are tricksters out there! Even if only a small proportion of complaints are fraudulent we do not want to publish false information, or assist others to do that.

If you look at the Ratings getclosure provides, you can see how others rate specific suppliers across different criteria. You can also compare your supplier against the industry averages, hopefully helping you decide whether or not to do business with any given supplier in an industry.

Quentin Tannock said, in May 10th, 2009 at 11:57 am

Neil, this is a valuable perspective. It is indeed challenging for corporations to deal with multiple complaints from myriad channels – many of these channels Internet enabled. It may even be the very plethora of options to complain (some not discrete, most unmanaged) that make the independent, discrete & managed getclosure hub so valued by our corporate subscribers.

For smaller suppliers we do make it easier to get started, essentially we provide them a pre-developed, time tested, online complaints management system – it works! Larger suppliers see higher volumes of complaints, as you saw at Volkswagen SA. Our system is developed to help the larger supplier efficiently manage volumes and, should the supplier subscribe, our reports & analysis help them proactively avoid complaints (for example, providing early warning of the causes of complaints – ‘prevention is better than cure’).

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