Irritable Customers are Passionate Customers

Posted on August 19th, 2008 by Larry Chase

Many companies have cranky customers. Dealing with them is just part of the cost of doing business. But often enough, customers who complain are some of your most loyal and passionate customers. If they didn’t care so much, they wouldn’t complain so loudly.

Highly-evolved marketing operations are now viewing cranky customers as an opportunity to be turned into positive and possibly even passionate advocates. The traditional line of thinking was to put them on hold forever – or at least to give them some sop so as not to lose them. But this critical crossroads in the relationship is more often now used to bond with them and keep them in the fold for a very long time.

Sure, people complain about a firm many more times than they praise it. But it is much better to have people occasionally praising you rather than having teeming hordes of disgruntled customers complaining about you f2f, in blogs, or in print. LC

The Internet Marketing Tip above originally appeared in Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers which you can subscribe to at no charge at www.wdfm.com.