A Complaint Is a Gift Workbook: 101 Activities, Exercises, and Tools to Learn from Critical Feedback and Recover Customer Loyalty

by Janelle Barlow, Victoria Holtz

Overview

Based on the bestselling A Complaint Is a Gift (over 275,000 copies sold), this accompanying workbook offers actionable tools that help individuals and organizations transform even the most extreme complaints into gifts that drive their business forward.

A Complaint Is a Gift introduced the revolutionary notion that customer complaints are not annoyances to be dodged, denied, or buried but are instead valuable pieces of feedback—not to mention your best bargain in market research. Complaints provide a feedback mechanism that can help organizations rapidly and inexpensively strengthen products, service style, and market focus. Most importantly, complaints that are well received create customer loyalty.

Built to be interactive and immersive, the workbook teaches a set of practices, approaches, and tools that anyone can use to navigate fraught customer-facing interactions. It allows readers to practice Janelle Barlow’s updated, more efficient three-step formula and enables employees to handle complaints with increased emotional resilience rather than taking them as personal attacks.

A Complaint Is a Gift Workbook is packed with the necessary tools to view and treat complaints as a source of innovative ideas that can transform your business.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523002979
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	432,846
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Janelle Barlow is president and owner of All Out Performance and has decades of experience as a consultant, executive coach, speaker, and author. Her past clients include World Bank Group, HP, and DHL. She is the bestselling author of A Complaint Is a Gift (over 275,000 copies sold).

Victoria Holtz is CEO of Moveminds Latin America. For more than twenty-five years, she has directed consulting projects a a senior consultant and has delivered conferences and workshops for more than 35,000 people. She is the author of Branded Customer Service.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Introduction: Complaints and Gifts 1

Chapter 1 Getting Started 7

Activity 1 My Commitment to Success 8

Activity 2 What's My Starting Point? 9

Chapter 2 Understanding Complaints 11

Activity 3 What Is a Complaint to You? 12

Activity 4 Feedback versus Complaints 14

Activity 5 My Best Complaint 16

Activity 6 My Worst Complaint 17

Activity 7 Why Do I Complain? 18

Activity 8 Who Has the Right to Complain? 20

Activity 9 Why Don't I Complain? 23

Activity 10 To Complain or Not-Its Complex 25

Self-Check: Understanding Complaints 28

Chapter 3 Who Complains? 29

Activity 11 Complainers Come in a Variety of Packages 30

Activity 12 The "I Want You to Get Better" Complainer 32

Activity 13 The "I'm Leaving" Complainer 34

Activity 14 The "Online" Complainer 36

Activity 15 The "Game the System" Complainer 38

Activity 16 Who Is This Complainer? 40

Activity 17 Dealing with All Types of Complainers 42

Activity 18 Responses for the Four Types of Complainers 43

Self-Check: Who Complains? 45

Chapter 4 The Treasure of Complaints as Gifts 47

Activity 19 How Your Emotions Affect Your Complaint Handling 48

Activity 20 Five Reasons Why Complaints Are Gifts 50

Activity 21 Complaints Define What Customers Want 52

Activity 22 Complaints Tell Us Who Is Loyal 54

Activity 23 Complaints Are an Inexpensive Marketing Tool 56

Activity 24 Complainers Are Still Talking with You 58

Activity 25 Complaints Are an Opportunity to Keep Your Customers 60

Activity 26 How to Get More Complaints 61

Activity 27 When Organizations Stop Getting Complaints 64

Self-Check: The Treasure of Complaints as Gifts 66

Chapter 5 The Gift Formula 67

Activity 28 Complaints as Birthday Gifts 68

Activity 29 What Is the Gift Formula? 70

Activity 30 The Gift Formula Overview 73

Activity 31 Respond by Saying "Thank You" 75

Activity 32 Build Stronger Rapport 77

Activity 33 Apologies Matter 79

Activity 34 The Power of Apologies 81

Activity 35 What Do Apologies Mean to Me? 82

Activity 36 Now Fix It! 84

Activity 37 Your Company Needs to Make It Right 85

Activity 38 Say It Like You Mean It 86

Activity 39 Follow Up with Customers 88

Activity 40 Victoria's "Thank You" Story 89

Activity 41 Practicing the Gift Formula 92

Self-Check: The Gift Formula 94

Chapter 6 Building Empathy 95

Activity 42 The Power of Empathy 96

Activity 43 Empathy Is as Important as Refunds 98

Activity 44 Reading Emotions 100

Activity 45 Anger 101

Activity 46 Sadness 102

Activity 47 Fear 103

Activity 48 Disgust 104

Activity 49 Surprise 105

Activity 50 Happiness 106

Activity 51 A Case Study in Sharing Emotions 107

Activity 52 What's My Impact on My Customers? 110

Activity 53 What's Important to My Customers? 112

Self-Check: Building Empathy 114

Chapter 7 Questioning Skills 115

Activity 54 The Power and Challenge of Asking Questions 116

Activity 55 Types of Questions 118

Activity 56 Types of Helpful Probing Questions 121

Activity 57 Best Questions for Getting More Customer Feedback 124

Self-Check: Questioning Skills 127

Chapter 8 Listening Skills 129

Activity 58 What Does Listening Mean to Me? 130

Activity 59 Listening at Three Levels 131

Activity 60 Paraphrasing Helps! 133

Activity 61 Listening to Deepen Rapport 135

Activity 62 Listening by Using Pacing 137

Self-Check: Listening Skills 139

Chapter 9 Beyond Words 141

Activity 63 What's the Body Saying? 142

Activity 64 Body Language Rules and Cues 144

Activity 65 Our Voice and Its Hidden Subtleties 146

Self-Check: Beyond Words 148

Chapter 10 Powerful Phrases That Work 149

Activity 66 Words Matter 150

Activity 67 Powerful Complaint-Handling Phrases 151

Activity 68 Three Phrases in One 155

Self-Check: Powerful Phrases That Work 157

Chapter 11 Difficult Customer Interactions 159

Activity 69 Difficult Customers 160

Activity 70 The Emotional Giant-Anger 162

Activity 71 Anger as a Volcano 163

Activity 72 Anger and Dissatisfaction 165

Activity 73 The First Stage: Denial 167

Activity 74 The Second Stage: Blaming 169

Activity 75 The Third Stage: Eruption 171

Activity 76 The Fourth Stage: Bargaining 172

Activity 77 The Fifth Stage: Acceptance 174

Activity 78 Let's Revisit That Volcano 175

Activity 79 No Customer Name-Calling 177

Activity 80 The Case of the Picky Customer 179

Activity 81 Ensure Your Own Safety 181

Self-Check: Difficult Customer Interactions 183

Chapter 12 Making Stress Work for Me 185

Activity 82 Stress Starts with a Decision 186

Activity 83 What Is Stress? 187

Activity 84 When Do I Feel Stressed? 189

Activity 85 How Does Stress Affect My Performance? 191

Activity 86 Stress Signals 194

Activity 87 What Are My Stress Signals? 196

Activity 88 What Are My Stressors? 197

Activity 89 Burnout-Is This Me? 199

Activity 90 Short Relaxation Techniques 202

Activity 91 Mindfulness and the Raisin Technique 205

Activity 92 The Power of Gratitude 207

Activity 93 Apps and Other Online Resources 209

Self-Check: Making Stress Work for Me 211

Chapter 13 Giving and Receiving Personal Feedback 213

Activity 94 Why Provide Feedback? 214

Activity 95 Guidelines for Providing Feedback 216

Activity 96 Be Specific When Giving Feedback 219

Activity 97 Taking in Personal Feedback 221

Activity 98 How to Get More Personal Feedback 223

Activity 99 Setting Limits to Feedback 225

Activity 100 The Gift Formula Works for Personal Feedback 227

Activity 101 Test Your Knowledge of the Gift Formula 229

Self-Check: Giving and Receiving Personal Feedback 231

Conclusion: Next Steps 233

Notes 236

How Trainers Can Use This Workbook 238

About the Authors 240