How to Complain to Get What You Want

Three years ago, I decided to stay in San Luis Obispo for my first summer during college and become a California resident. Since I wasn't taking any classes, it seemed logical to get a job. I had formerly been a tennis instructor so working at the "Tennis Warehouse" seemed like a good job for me since I already knew a thing or two about tennis.

Before visiting the facility, I thought I would just be a racquet stringer, doing my thing in a little pro shop. I was planning on staying there for just the summer.

Ding Dong! You're Wrong!

The job was far more than just stringing racquets. The majority of my job was full on customer service, and I would string racquets in between calls. My job was to be a tennis and tennis product guru and to be able to help customers with anything!

The job worked out well for me and I became a supervisor in a little under a year. I'm very much a "people person," so I excelled at customer service. As a supervisor, one of the duties I was entirely responsible for was "new hire training." What was the biggest part of this training? Learning our system was some of it, but the majority was learning to provide EXEMPLARY customer service.

Working in customer service for two years really taught me a lot about business-consumer relationships. As a supervisor, I had to speak with anybody who had a complicated issue or complaint. I dealt with a whole hodge-podge of different people, and through these interactions, learned exactly what works, and what doesn't when complaining.

Since leaving that job, I've used what I've learned a few times with tremendous success! Ok, enough build up. Here it is:

1. Do not get angry! It's ok to be frustrated, and certainly I would encourage you to let the customer service representative (CSR) how you feel. When you get angry though, the CSR will immediately feel unjustly antagonized and naturally be less willing to optimally help you. The nicest, calmest ones are generally the people who CSR's feel sympathetic towards and will "go to bat" for you when requesting your compensation from a manager. I can't tell you how many times someone has called in yelling at a CSR (who is almost NEVER responsible for that customer's problem). Showing anger will only hurt your cause.

2. Expect a reasonable compensation. Have an idea of what is reasonable before you call. A reasonable expectation is more likely to be fulfilled by the business. If you call in demanding totally ridiculous compensation, you will likely get less than you would have had you requested appropriate compensation.

3. Demonstrate loyalty. If you have dealt with the business before, mention that you are a loyal customer. Repeat customers provide a huge percentage of business revenue both through their own purchases, and through their recommendations. This is the customer that a business HATES to lose and consequently they will try VERY hard to accommodate you. Also mention how pleasant your previous transactions have been, and that you'd hate your relationship to be soured from one incident! This is Gold!

4. Don't make threats. Most larger businesses are immune to: "I'm reporting you to the Better Business Bureau!" or "You'll here from my lawyer!" etc. This is silly and will probably do nothing but cause you extra heartache. Again, this will cause you to get on the bad side of whomever you are speaking with which is not in your best interest.

5. Say how you feel. Words like "frustrated" and "disappointed" are gold especially when said in a non-threatening or angry way. They elicit sympathy and compassion.

6. Make good assumptions. Mention things like "I know you strive to establish great business-consumer relationships but..." or "I understand you have a reputation for putting the customer first but I feel disappointed that..."

I'm smiling as I'm writing this because this is some great (and somewhat manipulative) stuff! Man I'm good...

Making positive assumptions about a business is a subtle way of twisting their arm into helping you! Once these things are said, they feel like they need to conform to the standards you have so nicely imposed on them! The social science term for this is "framing" where you use subtle language to make the other person conform to a certain behavior.

7. Be confident! Do not accept substandard compensation if you really do deserve more! Stand by your request and don't be a pushover!

If you adhere to these tips when making a complaint, any company worth their salt will cater to your requests! The bigger the business, the better these suggestions work! Why is this? Because usually a business cannot grow huge without providing exemplary customer service.

Happy complaining everyone!

UPDATE: I just released an ebook package entitled The Social Charmer It's a two book package, the second of which is a detailed guide to getting optimum customer service! If this article was useful to you, definitely check out The Social Charmer package as it is much more thorough than this post!