“If none of your customers are complaining, start worrying…”

I can’t say I’d ever anticipated posting an article about trying to increase complaints from customers, but Entrepreneur.com has come through with another information-filled customer service article.

Quoting Jeanne Rinaldo, vice president of relationship management at Integrated Loan Services:

In my experience, I’ve found it’s foolish to assume that silence from your customers is a good thing. It’s the quiet clients who leave. They’re the ones who don’t make a fuss about problems—they let their complaints build up to the point that they think it’s easier to leave than attempt to fix all that’s wrong.

If you’re interested in making sure your customers aren’t doing a quiet disappearing act, read the full article: Getting Customers to Complain

Remember the good old days when our customers’ biggest complaints involved the site taking too long to download? Business Week Online has published the results of a customer survey and found that error messages are the problem these days, and that more than a third of your customers will abandon your site the moment they get one.

The top three complaints:

1. Error Messages: 40%
2. Confusing Navigation: 37%
3. Getting Trapped in an Endless Loop: 31%

Oh, and slow download times? A miniscule 3% of the customers surveyed mentioned it!

Read the full article

Patrick’s post yesterday laid out great information about how to turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal advocate of your business.

It seems only right to follow that up with a list of ways to keep those customers happy in the first place.

Liz Schmidt of Intelligraphics outlines the overriding principle:

The golden rule goes a long way when it comes to providing great customer service. So when dealing with customers or designing service procedures always ask yourself how you would like to be treated. And to get your creative brain in gear, here are a few specific ways to let your customers know you care.

1. Develop a customer database and use it.
   Having easy access to customer information means you can treat them like part of the family. Surprise your best customers occasionally with a note of thanks, and use your database to keep in touch.
2. Start a customer loyalty program.
   Small businesses are in a great position to implement this type of program because you can find out fairly easily what will motivate customers to return— special discounts or freebies. Be sure to make it easy to participate in your program, and not too difficult to earn the rewards.
3. Keep in touch.
   Watch for information that might be of use to your customers, and when you find something, mail them copies, or publish it in a newsletter. Let customers know about upcoming changes and additions, and offer them “early bird” discounts. In all your communication be sure to let your customers know that you are contacting them because you value them.
4. Solicit feedback.
   An astonishing 96% of unhappy customers never complain! Ask new customers to complete a satisfaction survey, and you might also want to survey repeat customers from time to time so they know you’re not taking them for granted. If customers praise you, ask if you can quote them in your marketing literature.
5. Ask customers for help.
   Collaboration builds relationships, so solicit customers’ ideas for improvement. You’ll get some good ones!