A client was struggling with a problem.
She kept hearing her SAAS (software as a service) customers complaining about problems. She knew how to fix the problems, but her senior leadership was unwilling to listen to her explanation of the root cause. Management wouldn’t listen to her, so she called The Marketing Sage for guidance on how to convince the senior team to shift their viewpoint.
In Your Customer’s Voice
We spoke for an hour, and she left with some actionable ideas to solve this problem.
We discussed how powerful it is to have “anti-testimonials” you can show to management.
An anti-testimonial is exactly what it sounds like – customer’s ranting and raging about your product and their frustrations.
But how can you get your customer’s complaints in front of your leadership team with the same zeal that you use testimonials to sing your praise?
Video.
My coaching client is going to record customer’s complaining about the problems they are encountering. She is going to create a series of “anti-testimonials” that will help her argue her case but through the voice of the customer.
The power in this simple idea is that senior leaders want to grow and continually improve. They may not believe your perspective if you are just a mid-level manager. But your customer’s voice holds incredible power if you can harness it to share their pain.
Anti-Testimonials
Companies love to produce content that reinforces your benefits for external audiences. But internal audiences need to hear the problems – warts and all. The organization can get better if it hears unblemished, unfiltered issues that they face with your products, services, and solutions. An organization that wants to get better wants to hear these problems.
Some companies have mission or vision statements with lofty language about being customer centric. Using a client video of complaints allows you to challenge if that mission statement is real or bullshit.
As Jay Baer describes in his book, Hug Your Haters, you want to learn from the problems and complainers if you truly want to grow.
Do Your Company Address Complaints with Fervor?
- How is your company making it easy for your customers to complain?
- How seriously do you address the complaints?
- How does your culture handle criticism and negative reviews?
- Who owns complaints and problems within the organization and do they have a seat at the adult table (senior leadership team).
- Are you part of a culture that celebrates the testimonials and looks away when the haters show their ugly head?
- How can you claim to be “customer focused” in your mission statement, if you pay lip service when problems keep showing up at your front door?
- Are you searching for solutions to prevent these problems from happening in the first place?
Maybe it is time to celebrate complaining customers and to let them tell a different story, so your business can grow to the next level.
Next number, please.
Need help with clients who complain? I can help. Let’s talk. Call me at my complaint hotline: 919 720 0995
Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Complaint_Department_Grenade.jpg
