seriously, show rather than tell

Have you ever had a business respond to your enquiry, feedback, or complaint with “we take your complaint seriously”

What do you think that means?

To me, it’s an empty sentiment - a clerk standing at the gate with his clipboard in his hand: ‘we hear you, now carry on’.

There is no tangible call to action or declaration of intent.

And that’s where I think careful consideration has more impact. I

To me, careful consideration is deep thinking. It means stopping to understand what happened, weighing the evidence, identifying what should have happened, and thinking about what is a reasonable next action.

For simple matters, this can be taking a step back and reviewing the situation. For complex matters, it could be employing root cause techniques such as the five whys.

I’m always asking my team to document on every occasion: what happened, what should have happened, and what we did to fix it.

Another important part is the person making the complaint. Nothing says we hear you more than picking up the phone and locking them into a conversation. Sometimes the complainant will be on board; sometimes they’ll have abandoned ship - it happens!

Taking a complaint seriously doesn’t always mean having the answers they want.

It’s just important to show that a complaint has been taken seriously by taking action and including them on the journey.

So, there’s nothing wrong with saying we take your complaint seriously; I just think the sentence is incomplete.

More information needed.