I was fortunate to have worked with Far East Bank whose main thrust was customer service. That is why we were always asked to attend trainings and seminars to help us improve our service to customers. In these seminars, it was always reiterated that “Complaints are gifts from customers!”

At first I find absurd if not outright ridiculous. But as the trainings and seminars progresses, it made more sense to me. A customer who is complaining is far better than a customer who doesn’t. A customer who complains is actually giving us a chance to help us improve our service and fix any lapses we may have. Whereas a customer who doesn’t complain and just leave is giving us no opportunity to fix any dissatisfaction he may experienced… and worst, this dissatisfaction could multiply outside our business without our knowledge.

An establishment I’ve been to has this posted on their walls, “If satisfied, tell others. If not, tell us!” And there’s no more horrific scenario than the opposite of that statement. Imagine a customer spreading how bad a service was to all of his friends and everybody he comes across with, what effect would that do on the business.

So when a customer approach you and complained about something, thank him or her, for they are actually giving you a gift. The gift of letting you improve your service… the opportunity of letting you fix errors that was made… before words on that mistake spread around.