EDITOR'S FOCUS: Got Complaints?

No one enjoys hearing a customer complaint, but if company owners better understood their value they would take action to get more complaints on the record. That’s one powerful take home message from our Weed & Insect Conference held in Chicago August 3 and 4.

The messenger was Chris Senske, president of Senske Lawn & Tree Care in Kennewick, Wash. Senske’s presentation, titled “Keeping Lawn Care Customer Retention High,” was based on his more than 15 years of exploring how to keep more customers. A critical factor in retention is getting complaints. Senske says consumer research and his company’s own experience show that getting a dissatisfied customer to complain increases their likelihood of repurchasing your service by 250 percent – even if their complaint was not satisfied!

Senske’s extensive tracking of complaints also parallels consumer research that shows that complainers tend to be your longer-term and larger volume customers. This makes sense because these customers are investing more and have higher expectations. While just 3 percent of customers complain about a minor inconvenience, 69 percent of customers who pay $140 or more for a service will complain if they are not satisfied. Fifty percent will complain a second time if their problem was not satisfied after the first complaint.

Overall, Senske says many customers don’t bother to complain because they don’t feel it will be worth the effort, that the company won’t do anything about the problem anyway and, in some cases, they fear possible retribution.

Many customers simply do not know where or how to complain. Field employees tend to block or filter out complaints. And only 2 percent of dissatisfied customers will write a letter to management.

So, how do you get more complaints registered? Senske’s advice is to make it as easy as possible for customers to complain. He also advises a shift from blame to viewing complaints as opportunities to help.

To “attract” complaints from his customers Senske offers a toll-free number, a feedback button on his company’s Web site and he trains field staff to tell customers the company can only solve problems they know about. He also uses customer satisfaction surveys regularly.

Senske’s staff is educated about the value of complaints to the company’s reputation. To get to the root of the problem and fix it – rather than to just find blame – all complaints are analyzed against four criteria: First, what was the symptom or reason for the contact? Second, what was the general cause – was it an employee, a company process breakdown or the customer? Third, what was the specific, “root” cause? Fourth, if applicable, the reason for escalation to the manager level – usually a factor other than the original problem, for example, the attitude or indifference of an employee when being told about the problem?

Senske says his diligence in tracking complaints and working to resolve them has paid off with an improved company reputation and improved customer retention.