Intro -- Contents -- List of Figures and tables -- Preface -- About the author -- 01 Complaints as opportunities -- Increasing customer expectations -- The power of the customer -- Social media -- Delivering excellent service -- Levels of customer satisfaction -- Customer complaints -- What is a complaint? -- Customer dissatisfaction -- The risks involved in poor complaint handling -- The positive power of effective complaint handling -- The business case for excellent complaint handling -- Key learning points -- Rate your organization's approach to complaint handling -- 02 Encouraging dissatisfied customers to voice their complaints -- Encouraging complaints -- Why customers do not complain -- Ways to encourage people to complain -- Making best use of social media -- Double deviation -- The regulatory environment -- Complaints standards bodies -- Key learning points -- Rate how well your organization encourages customers who are dissatisfied to complain -- 03 What people look for when they complain -- What is important to customers when they complain? -- Fast resolutions to complaints -- Call the customer -- Single deviation -- Taking complaints seriously -- The emotional and economic cost of complaints -- Empathy and apology -- Meeting expectations -- What makes best-in-class complaint handling? -- What about money? -- What to consider when offering redress -- Types of financial and non-financial redress -- Gestures of goodwill -- Service guarantees -- Key learning points -- Customer complaint-handling checklist -- 04 Customer-management strategy and its implementation -- Setting a strategy for your complaint management -- Link to organizational vision and values -- Hard and soft elements of a complaint-management strategy -- Complaint-management policy and standards -- Complaint-handling processes and procedures -- Complaint-handling system.

The people side -- Recruitment -- Induction -- Training and competence -- Empowerment -- Measurement -- Learning and improvement -- Key learning points -- Seven Ss assessment -- 05 Communication styles and emotional intelligence -- Ways people choose to complain -- How complaint handlers choose to respond -- Emotional intelligence -- Key learning points -- 06 The skills and behaviours needed for dealing effectively with complaints -- Imagine you received this complaint on the phone -- Listen first -- Empathize and apologize -- Ask questions -- React positively and reach a solution -- Notify the customer of the action and note what is to be done -- Take action -- Dealing with complaints in writing -- Writing style -- Structuring a written response -- Key learning points -- 07 Recording and thoroughly investigating complaints -- Recording complaints -- Accuracy of logging -- Why investigate thoroughly? -- Investigation checklist -- Explain the outcome -- Key learning points -- 08 Conciliation, mediation and arbitration -- Conciliation, mediation and arbitration -- Mediation -- Where mediation adds value -- When mediation is not appropriate -- Conflict management -- Impartiality -- The mediation process -- Questioning techniques -- Influencing techniques -- Mediation skills criteria -- Key learning points -- Will you make a good mediator? -- 09 Making improvements as a result of complaints -- Learning from complaints -- The benefits of root-cause analysis -- Service-improvement activity should be a senior management responsibility -- Pareto principle -- Techniques you can use for root-cause analysis -- Techniques for defining the problem -- Generating options for improvement -- Tips on how to implement an improvement plan effectively -- Eastman Chemical root-cause analysis -- Complaints as part of a wider customer feedback loop.

Other ways to generate ideas for service improvement -- Key learning points -- 10 Creating an environment that promotes high performance -- The ideal complaint handler -- Loyalty and engagement -- Concentrate on your people first -- How engaged are your work colleagues? -- So how do you make more people in your team into stars? -- Do not rely on pay and conditions alone as the basis of a retention strategy -- Adopt a tailored approach -- Key learning points -- What are your team members' motivators? -- 11 Complaint handling and culture change -- Customer service and culture change -- Eight characteristics of excellent service organizations -- Summary -- Appendix: How customer-centric is your business? -- References -- INDEX.