Complaints are Healthy, Positive and Good for Business

Singaporeans like to complain, right?

We complain about everything! Why is it flooding in Orchard Road? Why are MRT fares expensive? Why watching World Cup on cable is so expensive? Why is the weather so hot/cold? Okay lah, let’s say we call these: ‘feedback‘.

Now look at the photo on the right. This is the message from  the video display screens around Gatwick Airport in London:

Feedback is Good

But really, there is value in all of  these ‘feedback’. For businesses who are ‘listening in to these feedback’, it is a way to find out what is wrong with their products or services. For customers, complaining is a ‘healthy way’ to voice your unhappiness. If we don’t say it, we can only suffer in silence and businesses will never improve or give us what we pay good money for.

The SingPost Experience

Here is my personal story on why complaining is good. When SingPost lost my wife’s US$400 parcel (they cannot explain why, gave us totally crap customer service and didn’t want to admit to losing the parcel) I decided to blog about it .  I shared the story on Facebook and Twitter and we received so much support from friends and strangers that eventually SingPost had to come to our home, apologised and refunded the whole amount. Moral of the story? Never keep quiet as a customer.

(Honestly, I really salute SingPost for having the courage to talk to us directly and doing what we feel is within our rights as a paying customer.)

Complaints Are Inevitable,  Take Them Positively

In any industry, complaints are inevitable. Just as you and I like to complain, customers and clients are in the habit of doing it too (we are in Singapore after all!). But let’s take a moment and look at complaints differently, and positively, in these ways.

So that’s it:

Complaints are good, complaining is positive.
And certainly good for business.