The absolute world’s best business advice

Who's the best advisor for you in business?

As an owner of a business or senior executive running a business, it's almost impossible to even go a day without someone offering you advice on how you should run your business better.

The uncomfortable but real truth of the best advisors for your business is the following...

The best advisors to listen to when it comes to running your business better are the ones who are complaining about it! That's right. Those pains in the backside who complain who criticise, who find fault and who expressed dissatisfaction are by far the most important the most valuable and the most informed feedback and commentary you could possibly hope for.

Better than a big market research survey. Better than getting the board and the executive team together and thrashing out problems. Better than competition analysis. Cheaper. As close to real-time as possible. Often realistic. Usually accurate. Indicative of the level of importance by the number of complaints that share the same theme.

You might be surprised how often companies and businesses don't take complaints seriously. Don't respond to complaints. Don't log and record complaints. And even sometimes don't even respond to complaints!

I sat on a board of advisors to the travel industry once; surrounded by academics, leaders in hospitality, consultants and researchers.

One of the leaders of a major hospitality chain told us that so many people complained about check-out times, getting late checkouts, booking late checkouts, etc. that his management team simply stopped taking notice of the complaints because there were too many and it was weighing them down with dealing with other complaints.

A table of 12 consultants around me heard the commentary and made no observation about it. I couldn't help myself exclamation! I said, “stop”! You're telling me that there are so many complaints about late checkout that you are now just ignoring the late checkout problem? He said, “yes”. I said, “those complaints are liquid gold… that whole issue is an invitation for you to innovate and make a fortune. Don't you see that?”

The rest of the table was silent. He pondered. And a more diplomatic, political animal changed the subject ...

They’re still a “successful” chain… but no different (or preferable) to their “same-same” competition.

Fortunately, I'm not paid to be yes man. Nor agree with the majority. Nor go with the flow. That's how I've achieved breakthrough wins such as getting the government to accept credit card as a form of payment; such as changing pharmaceutical perspectives from product orientation to market orientation, making single brand $20 million a year over extra without much effort; such as writing the winning strategy for the My Dog brand when it failed to launch successfully after it failed to launch successfully in 1983. And lots more.

But back to topic, complaints and negative observations from your clients, from your customers, from your staff, from your shareholders, from any interested stakeholder, is the most valuable source of opportunity for business improvement that you can tap into.

So, the next time someone complains, don't wince, shrug your shoulders, roll your eyes, wish you were somewhere else, or dismiss the complaint, or perceive the person as any less valuable than any other stakeholder in their lot.

That person who has lodged the complaint is telling you what other people, who are unhappy, are thinking but not brave enough to tell you what they're thinking.

The person who complains is your insight into the issues that all your customers face.

You might believe the customer who's nice, doesn't complain, accepts your service-level, and quietly continues to use you (in the short term) is the best customer.

It follows you will be surprised when your best customer or customers actually leave and go to another service provider or supplier or business partner.

In FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), marketers get furious when grocery chains like Woolworths or Coles or MetCash delete a brand but it's because these retailers arn't getting the return on their shelf space real estate that they need to justify the brand being there: Instead of blaming themselves, marketers blame the retailer! Ludicrous!

So, the message is, “When someone complains, hop to it”!

Research has shown that a complaint, swiftly dealt with and dealt with in a satisfactory manner, achieves no less than 95% positive post-event perception by the complainer. In other words, you make customers who complain more loyal by solving their complaint.

Not only is listening to, appreciating, admiring and satisfying complainers the best thing for your business, it also pays!

Next time someone complains about you or your business, remember to thank them.