The Power of the Non-Existent Customer Complaint

“We never get any complaints about that.” This notion is one of the most aggravating statements I hear from business leaders. In many cases, customers don’t take the time to complain. Rather than tell you that they didn’t like their experience, they simply leave and do not come back.

Hence the term: the non-existent customer complaint. If you don’t hear the complaints, they must not exist. These non-existent complaints are powerful for two reasons. First, they are destroying your business, especially if you are in denial about them. Second, if you can accept that they do in fact exist, they can really help you turn things around.

For a great example of the power of non-existent customer complaints, watch a few episodes of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. On this show, star chef Gordon Ramsay conducts intensive interventions with failing restaurants. Each show generally starts with Gordon sampling the food, which is invariably awful. When he tells the chef/owner that he thinks a particular menu item is terrible, quite often the chef/owner responds with “well, we never get complaints about the food.” The problem with this thinking is revealed when you look at the dining room or the reservation book. The dining room is empty, the reservation book is blank. As a result, the business is bleeding cash.

When someone is bold enough to bring forward the complaint, the response is typically denial. Rather than accepting the feedback and realizing that what this one person is complaining about is an indicator of problems on a larger scale, the response is often anger, obfuscation, or discrediting the messenger. On the show, when Gordon tells the chefs how bad their food is, he generally gets anger and denial in return. It usually takes a couple of days of strong messages to get through to the chef and ultimately turn things around.

For several years, my wife and I consistently complained about the lack of quality childcare at our church. We were concerned about safety, the training of staff, and the quality of programming.

We were proactive – not only raising the issues but bringing ideas and a willingness to be a part of the solution. Yet our complaints were met with similar denial. Most maddening was the response that we were the only ones concerned about this issue.

Here’s the problem: other parents were not complaining – they were simply leaving. Visitors would examine the childcare situation and decide not to join. Members would get frustrated with the situation and go elsewhere. So the small number of people who cared enough to complain were met with denial. (No wonder they say that a cynic is someone who cares the most but has given up.) Fortunately the situation at our church has turned around.

A strong leader takes the complaint as a gift. It is a huge opportunity to learn and improve. She takes the complaint, gets data about the frequency and magnitude of the problem, and then seeks a solution that gets to the root cause of the issue. The complaint is ultimately not the issue – results are. If your dining room is empty, you will never hear any complaints – except the ones from your creditors and suppliers asking
you to pay your bills!