So you want to be a superior service provider? Start by answering your mail

Business Horizons, Nov-Dec, 1994 by William E. Fulmer, Jack S. Goodwin

As the president of an auto dealership, you receive a letter addressed personally to you that states in part:

[W]e entered your showroom ready to

purchase a van. We ... bought our van

elsewhere, where the salespeople were

knowledgeable and, above all, courte-

ous. We feel that the treatment we re-

ceived was probably not uncommon at

your showroom, and felt you might ben-

efit from hearing about our experience. Or, as the president of a chain of clothing stores, you receive a letter addressed personally to you that states in part:

I wanted to take the time to write this

note to principally commend your staff.

Jim took me on a journey through your

store, which I enjoyed most thoroughly.

Jim was knowledgeable, concerned,

relaxed, and a delight to work with. He

is at once a credit to your store and your

profession. What would you do in each case? Our research suggests that in many cases the response is identical--ignore the letter.

If you were the first letter writer, contrast the "silent treatment" with the following response:

Thank you for writing to us about

your experience .... We appreciate

hearing from you because we need feed-

back from our clients to help us monitor

and maintain the quality of our ... ser-

vices. Your comments about expectation

Management were abso-

lutely correct. Appar-

ently, Mr. Jones has not

yet mastered the tech-

nique. I do apologize

that you found his ap-

proach overzealous and

offensive. His superiors

have been advised of

your dissatisfaction and I

can asssure you that the

matter will be dealt with

expeditiously. We neither

condone nor tolerate

behavior of this nature.

Ms. Smith, it would

be a great disappoint-

ment to lose your busi-

ness but an even keener one to lose your

friendship and confidence in World Mo-

tors. My associates and I are genuinely

sorry for your experience and, as a tan-

gible gesture of our concern, I have en-

closed a $50 "Be My Guest" certificate. I

hope you will enjoy a memorable meal

at your favorite restaurant ... compli-

ments of World Motors. As a customer, which firm are you most likely to do business with in the future?

This article examines a study of 222 letters of praise and complaint, written over a three-year period, and 91 company responses to them. Individuals writing letters were asked to identify an example of particularly outstanding or poor service they had experienced and to write a letter to the company to express their praise or dissatisfaction. No instruction was given concerning the type of business or industry to be contacted. The writers did not identify themselves as participants in a research project, and were asked to report all responses received from the service organization to which they had written.

Letters were omitted from the sample if they were duplicate letters readdressing the customer's basic issue with the same company. Each customer was allotted one letter per company. Company responses analyzed were either the first responses or letters addressing the customer's issues directly. For example, letters from related parties or letters telling the customer the appropriate letter was on its way were not analyzed. The company sample included only one response letter per customer for a given company.

The Nature of Customer Letters

Of the customer letters written, complaints accounted for 61.3 percent and praise accounted for 38.7 percent. Of the letters in which customer frequency of service use could be roughly determined (92.8 percent), about 62.6 percent were from repeat customers. The results covered some 77 industries. Airlines, hotels, and restaurants clearly dominated (see Table 1).

Table 1

Industries Represented by Frequency

              CUSTOMER LETTERS       RESPONSES
              Number   Percent    Number   Percent
Airline         28       12.6       14       15.4
Hotel           19        8.6       14       15.4
Restaurant      16        7.2        0        0.0
Banks           10        4.5        9        9.9
Credit Card      8        3.6        0        0.0
Auto Sales       7         3.2       0        0.0
Car Rental       6         2.7       5        5.5
Other          128       57.7       49       53.2
TOTAL          222      100.0       91      100.0

Who Responded (and Who Didn't)

Overall, the customer letters achieved a 41 percent response rate. Of those responses, 71.4 percent were answers to complaints and 28.6 percent answered letters of praise. Excluding industries with five or fewer customer letters, banks provided the strongest respnse rate: 90 percent. Car rental businesses were next, with 83.3 percent; hotels were third with 73.7 percent. Letters to airlines, the industry receiving the most customer letters, achieved only a 50 percent response rate. (The failure of restaurants, credit card businesses, and auto dealers to respond to a single customer letter seems noteworthy.)

Breaking down the industry results further (see Figure 1) shows that only banks responded to 100 percent of their negative letters and 75 percent of their praise letters. Conversely, airlines responded to just 60 percent of their negative letters and only 25 percent of their praise letters.