Thank Your Unhappy Customers

Kevin starts this episode by quoting Bill Gates, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Kevin wholeheartedly agrees.

Kevin recounts how for years he steered clear of unhappy customers.  Whenever someone became unhappy he tried to move away from them as fast as possible. Kevin likes everybody to be happy.  Unhappy customers cause tension and problems and Kevin’s just not a fan. 

Now when we have unhappy customers we have a full-on Lessons Learned meeting with the team. We dig into all of the issues, we write up our findings, and we share it with the client. We go through this process every time something goes wrong.  

As the business continues to grow we will always have new problems, and bigger problems. It’s inevitable. We always have to improve and learn from our mistakes. We also have to thank our unhappy customers who help us improve our processes and become a better company. 

This came up for us recently when a long-term client who used to rate us a three or four on our Net Promoter Score (NPS) changed their rating to a 10.  This is proof that you can make an unhappy customer happy and when that happens it’s a wonderful thing. So thank your unhappy clients because they help you grow.