A Complaint Is a Gift, 3rd Edition: How to Learn from Critical Feedback and Recover Customer Loyalty [Paperback]

The third edition of this bestseller (over 275,000 copies sold) builds on the tested formula that helps organizations recognize the value of complaints using updated examples and concepts in the age of COVID-19.

The first edition of A Complaint Is a Gift introduced the revolutionary notion that customer complaints are not annoyances to be dodged, denied, or buried but are instead valuable pieces of feedback—not to mention your best bargain in market research. Complaints provide a feedback mechanism that can help organizations rapidly and inexpensively strengthen products, service style, and market focus. Most importantly, complaints that are well received create customer loyalty.

This new edition condenses the tried and true eight-step formula into a tighter, more efficient three-step formula. From her work with clients, the author has updated industry-specific complaint examples and added in new concepts, such as a process that enables employees to handle complaints with increased emotional resilience—something that is sorely needed since dealing with increasingly difficult customers is a common occurrence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Handling complaints doesn’t have to be a negative, soul-crushing experience. Janelle Barlow gives the right tools to treat each of them as a source of innovative ideas that can transform your business.“Eye-opening and powerful, with practical examples addressing the latest customer expectations and tech trends. Two new chapters on online complaining are worth the cost of the entire book. Barlow’s Gift Formula for handling complaints not only fosters positive word of mouth but makes employees feel successful and empowered. It assures that the CSRs will listen and impact company operations to prevent future similar occurrences.”
—John A. Goodman, VlÓÞ