Many years ago, I was doing some work for a small retail chain. The owner was showing me stacks of customer comment cards. He was extremely pleased to show me nothing but great comments. I asked him, "What about the customers who have complaints?" He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Since you're not encouraging them to come forward, what do you think is happening to them? I'll bet they're just walking away and never coming back, without even giving you a chance to keep their business."

It's great for your ego to hear nothing but compliments from your customers, but it's when you encourage complaints, it becomes your opportunity to prove you and your company is all you claimed to be when you first captured the customer.

What does every potential customer want to know before they buy? "How are you going to back me up should something go wrong?" Conversely, how does almost every salesperson answer that question? "Don't worry, we stand behind everything we sell and we'll be there for you."

Well, guess what; it's only when something goes wrong, that a true opportunity has been created for you.

The customers that come to you with complaints are great. They're giving you an opportunity to show what you can really do. Unfortunately, the majority of customers with a complaint don't come forward. They just go away and buy from your competitors.

Unless you're working hard to get these customers to come forward with their complaints, you're going to lose a lot of business that could have easily been saved. And, not only saved, but increased.

One of the reasons customers would rather just walk than voice their complaints is that they're so used to poor service, they figure "why bother." Let's just go on to the next vendor.

Didn't you ever notice how shocked and grateful customers are when their complaints are listened to, dealt with, and resolved, quickly, easily and with the least amount of hassle? Why should that be? All you did was what you were supposed to do. You did what should be commonplace. Yet, it's something so rare, that those companies who do it can keep their customers for life! They have separated themselves from the competition.