Seth Godin unknowingly has written a great follow up to my recent post titled, A Love For Complainers. He points out the importance of listening, and how in return listeners receive notice and acknowledgment from the person speaking. This is another great lesson for us in dealing with complainers. Make it a point to be a great listener to complaining customers and in return they will give you the attention, and opportunity to make things right.

My wife grew up in a small town in the Texas panhandle. So it’s needless to say that high school sports were a big deal. She and many of her friends were huge supporters of her high school’s varsity teams merely because there was little else to do, unless you get big thrills out of watching tumbleweeds roll by. They would go all out sponge painting t-shirts, cheering, and making signs to hold up at the games.

During basketball season, she and a group of friends came up with a clever (but slightly devious) idea for a cheer to use at an upcoming game. They even made signs to further reinforce their witty cheer and to make sure everyone in the arena could see.

They waited until the game heated up and the opportune time to reveal their scheme presented itself. Sure enough, one of the officials made a controversial call against their school and the crowd got heated. That’s when they whipped their signs and started their taunting, “Nuts and Bolts, Nuts and Bolts! We Got Screwed!” Many in the crowd joined in the jeering contagious chant.

I enjoy seeing this type of thing at sporting events. It makes the games interesting and exciting. It’s not that I like to see actions that some would consider bad sportsmanship. I just like the unexpectedness of games where the fans are just as intense as the players. In this environment, the true colors of fans, players and officials can be seen immediately.

There are always going to be complainers. Even though they aren’t in the game where all the action is, they want to make their opinions known. Some people feel it is their job to complain and express their anxiety vocally, and they have an immense ability to get others to join in complaining. This poses the question, is this a bad thing?

In the world of business, we should seek out complainers and love the very moment we encounter a complainer. This might sound strange that we should look for people who hold such negative attitudes, but complainers can provide us with something that satisfied customers cannot. Here are a few reasons why complainers should be treated like the valuable assets they are:

1. Complainers are Blatantly Honest
   
   They can and will tell you everything that’s working and everything that’s not. Listen because they will tell you things you didn’t even know about your own product or business. The Better Business Bureau states that, “Typically a business hears from only 4 percent of its dissatisfied customers. The other 96 percent just quietly go away and you will never know why.” This should give you a clue as to how important this feedback is.
   
   
   
   
2. Complainers are Mavens
   
   Based on the fact that a complainer takes the time to get in touch with you and complain increases the odds that they are in fact mavens on the subject and are seeking to pass along information. This is the person that others will come to when they have a question regarding your product or business.

3. Complainers can Become Your Best Customer
   
   A complainer, by complaining has showed you an interest in your product or company. Do what it takes to make it right and you will have one of your best customers.
   
   

Usually the customer that complains wants less than you think. Satisfy complainers. Appease them. Shape your product and company around their needs and wants. Give them what they want and you will have proved to them that you are insistent on customer’s needs being fully met. In return you will have won over one of your biggest assets: a blatantly honest and loyal maven. Add the connectors and you’ve got two ingredients for a Tipping Point scenario.

Seth Godin sent me into a flashback yesterday of a somewhat embarrassing experience I had at a concert last year. He wrote about listening to Live at Massey Hall: Neil Young and described how much more excited the crowd would get when the songs they knew were played, and in contrast how the crowd gave a, “tepid reaction,” to songs they did not know.

I’m a huge fan of the band, The Format, and after almost three years of rock hibernation (releasing a single here or there, with no live show to be seen) they were back on tour and were in the finally stages of getting their newest full album, Dog Problems, ready for release. Since they hadn’t played a live show in a while they were taking it slow getting back into the music scene, and I heard through their fan network that they would be doing a small show at the Farmers Market in OKC. I quickly marked the date on my calendar.

The night of the concert when The Format reached the stage I was stoked. For a while I didn’t know if the group was going to make a comeback, so to experience their music live gave me a refreshing jolt of confidence that one of my favorite bands would in fact be picking up right where they left off. I enjoyably sang loudly and proudly, knowing all the words to every song. After three or four Format greats, Nate, the lead singer of the band, said they would be playing a new song that would be on their next album. That’s when I found myself in a moment of awkwardness. As soon they started playing this song I unhesitatingly began singing loudly and off key just like I had to all the other songs. I quickly realized that no one else was singing, and looking at the rest of the crowd there were only one or two people who appeared like they might have even heard the song before.

I came to the quick realization that everyone else in the room wasn’t quite the Format junkie that I was. They hadn’t been sucking up every rumor, drop of news, music sample, and single release that had surfaced while the band was on a semi hiatus for almost three years. I had heard the acoustic version of this “new song” many times before that night. In fact, it was one of my 5-star favorites on my Ipod.

It’s interesting to look at how much more popular “new song” of the night has become. Now the song, “She Doesn’t Get It,” is being pushed as the latest single for their new album and a music video of the song has entered the MTV2 rotation. This is a good example of how being consistent with a good message, even when it is slow to be excepted, can make more of an impact over time.

I would hate to be the salesperson that helped Seth Godin today at the Westchester Toyota dealership. Little did he know that his poor performance would be known allover blog world in minutes when Seth returned to his computer. With the large audience Seth has, I wouldn’t be surprised if this salesperson was looking for new employment tomorrow. Read about Seth’s experience he titled “Good is not almost as good as great.” I’m sure the dealership doesn’t appreciate the bad publicity either.

This just goes to show that every customer counts, and if anything can motivate you to get in this mindset, then the idea of popular avid bloggers walking among us should do the trick (not to mention that in Seth’s case, we are talking about a nationally know author and public speaker). You never know who you are dealing with.

From a marketing standpoint, a lesson to be learned, is that often the strongest messages are presented to customers one-on-one through employees in sales and customer service.