Compliments & Complaints

I wanted to discuss my ethos on compliments & complaints. I know there are some who do this for fun, complaining about products they never bought, because they heard someone else got freebies for doing so. In my mind, these aren't freebies for anyone, as the cost of them is passed on in the price of the product.

I do believe in speaking my mind. If I like something, or have a genuine problem with something, I will tell the company. I love complimenting, and do so far more than complaining. When was the last time you told someone that you loved their product? I regularly email companies to tell them why I like their products. Recently I bought a posh chocolate bar, and absolutely loved it. I emailed them that evening while England were playing football, and had a response just ten minutes later from the company's Managing Director who was thrilled and even invited me to visit the factory and meet the team.

Sometimes companies respond to the compliment by sending out vouchers or samples. I think that's great, and it increases the likelihood of me telling others how good a company is, both the product and their customer services team. I don't expect it though, and it's not the driving force behind me complimenting in the first place.

Complaining is a whole different ball game. If there is a fault with a product or service, or it didn't meet my expectations, I want to tell the company to give them a chance to act on that feedback. It's one of the ways products grow and change, and essentially become better. Evolution in the marketplace!

I strongly believe that a complaint requires as much good manner and politeness as a compliment, and aim to make my feedback constructive rather than critical. Take the Cravendale milk complaint in my last post, a friend bought the same milk from the same store, and had the same problem. She was angry and fired up a complaint straightaway. I made sure to tell Cravendale that every other time I bought their milk, I loved it, and wanted them to know about the problem to prevent it reoccurring. I received a letter 2 days later with 4 vouchers for a free 2 litre carton. My friends reply took 3 weeks and she received 2 vouchers.

So please don't use my blog as a source of ideas for complaining, that's not it's purpose.