Why on earth would I be telling you to encourage complaints? Shouldn’t women in business be doing everything they can to discourage complaints? Short answer: no! I’m not suggesting that you should purposely create scenarios where customers are justified to complain. But I am encouraging you to create a culture in your business where customers feel comfortable to complain in the event that something does go wrong.

There are a number of key ways to do this:

• Have a written and highly visible complaints process

• Use encouraging, friendly language (“we want to hear about your experience with our business!”) • Contact the complainant within 24 hrs.

• Wherever possible, contact the complainant initially by phone and ask them to explain the situation to you, providing assurances that your aim is improve the outcome for them. You can then follow this up with written correspondence (although you may need to obtain legal advice before putting anything in writing to avoid legal implications in cases of possible negligence)

• You don’t necessarily need to admit any wrongdoing (especially if there wasn’t any!) and you may need to obtain legal advice in some situations. But the initial contact should be to simply acknowledge the complainant’s concerns and really listen to (and record) what they have to say.

• Don’t promise something you can’t deliver (i.e. you won’t always be able to give the complainant exactly what they want)

• Wherever possible (and appropriate), offer them something (a gift, a free or discounted consultation, etc) to say thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.

And most importantly, you then need to use your customers’ feedback to improve your services and ensure that the same scenario doesn’t occur again. This might involve training your staff to approach the situation differently or changing procedures so that particular situations don’t arise.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender