Why should I complain ?
This was published by DNA on 13th Jan 2011
This was published by DNA on 13th Jan 2011
The
other day I was going through a newspaper article which spoke about the role of
the Anti Corruption Bureau in India. A concerned official as quoted as saying
that there are not enough complaints for them to take action on. People simply
take things the way they are and hence they don’t complain. That set me
thinking, I realized that this trait of not complaining and learning to live
with defective products and poor services is now
an
integral part of ours. If we are stuck with a bad product or service, we take
private actions - we stop buying that product, we run it down in our arm chair
conversations, we dissuade others from buying it, but never ‘voice’ our
complaints. Mediocrity is acceptable and marketers gladly accept it or rather
exploit it. So why is it that people don’t react when rightfully they should be
complaining?
Someone will take up cudgels: I have seen a lot of people waiting in hope that since so many
people are being affected, someone will take up the cudgels and the matter will
be resolved. There is a joke that in Europe people call the power utility when
electricity goes off (if at all). In the US they call 911 but in India they check the
neighbours house. If they don’t have lights as well they are relieved. In
Delhi, there used to be frequent powercuts.
At one such time,my cousin called up the power utility after an hour of power
cut. “When will the power supply get restored. It’s over an hour now?,” he
asked in disgust. However, the response was even more shocking. “There is no power
cut from our side, there must be a fault somewhere, why didn’t you complain
earlier?” And behold, the power was restored within 5 minutes from then. If only
we had complained earlier, we wouldn’t have suffered for the past one hour.
I will look like a fool: Will I not look like a fool in a crowded store if I take my
faded shirt and complain that the colour ran out when it could be my detergent
that was of poor quality? Well, you may not look like a fool if you complain, but
definitely are a fool if you don’t take up the issue with the store and suffer
in silence.
It was a bad decision: One tends to just rationalize saying this was one bad decision
and that we should be careful the next time. This usually happens when we
decide against popular opinion or consciously opt for a new or a cheaper brand.
Choosing a low cost option may not necessarily mean accepting poor quality.
While there are a lot of disclaimers put up by low cost airlines, not all of
these stand up to the test of law. Eg: Even if a low cost scheduled airline is
delayed beyond reason, you have a right to complain and seek redressal.
I was unlucky: Consign
it to destiny. Even in a six sigma operation it is likely that you are having that
one out of one million products that is faulty. That does not mean you have to
live with it. It is the manufacturer of the product who should provide for it.
Didn’t you pay for the product in full? You may have been told, “But we have
never received any complaints of this nature from anyone else.” How does that
concern me?
I
have a complaint and its got to be taken care of.
It may not be worth it: People do tend to surmise that the effort and cost associated
with raking and resolving an issue may not be worth it. And even if I make these
efforts there is no assurance that the outcome will be favorable. This is the
most common reason why people don’t complain.
And
then finally, there is this great Indian trait of tolerance.
Complaining
is not in our DNA. Someone who complains is a cribber, and is ostracized “Raising
an issue will make me the bad guy”. We have been taught to accept and tolerate deficiencies
and that’s an impediment to the cause of zero tolerance in consumer matters. Every
time someone takes up a genuine issue, he has been able to take it to a
favorable resolution. He may have had to go different distances in trying to
resolve it,
but
the efforts have been worth it. And more importantly you don’t have to live
with a feeling that you have been shortchanged. For economic
reasons
marketers (often subconsciously) test the least acceptable levels of quality at
the same price point among customers- whether product or service. And if
customers don’t care about waiting that extra minute on the phone at your
contact centre or that one extra cherry topping on
your ice-cream, they would surely shave it off their costs to be more
competitive. If there are complaints, it will only force the marketer to look
at their quality processes in greater detail and the resultant effort will benefit
all. He will save on sales returns and you will get a better product
the next time around. There are instances when the marketer realizes that a
faulty product has been released in the market. In some countries, they would
announce a product recall and replace or repair the product before you
suffered. In the Indian context where the consumer movement is not very strong,
I don’t recall a single instance. Marketers don’t see the need to take
proactive action. They just issue internal directives asking their staff to be
responsive’ to anyone who complains. If you don’t complain and choose to suffer
in silence guess who is the loser?
While
I am recommending that you complain for poor products, shoddy service and delayed
deliveries, I also recommend that you should be true and genuine to the cause.
Dont ever complain to exploit the situation. After all if you take undue
advantage of the complaint process of the marketer, it will only make him too
wary and this will show up in his costs. A lot of people use a product merrily
for a week and then return it to the store for some frivolous reasons. What
they don’t realize is that stores build these possibilities in their price and
we as consumers unwittingly pay higher.
Dont
let yourself feel cheated. Complain if you are bothered. Complain if you haven’t
got your money’s worth.. If nobody ever complains, mediocrity is perpetuated. You
owe it to others… they shouldn’t go through what you have had to. If we
complain and things improve - the society as a whole benefits