How To Handle Customer Complaints

Mar. 04, 2008

By Kevin Stirtz, Stirtz Group LLC


Fifteen years ago I had a complaint at a very well known Italian restaurant in Minneapolis. I still remember how badly the employee responded to my concern. In fact, I’ve used it in my customer service seminars. It shows the power we all have to give our customers a memorable experience.

Here are some rules I teach in my seminars to help people handle customer complaints. If you and your staff follow these rules you can turn unhappy customers into loyal cheerleaders for your business.

1. Listen completely

Give them your complete attention. Don’t multi-task. Don’t “half-listen”. Write down what they are telling you and get specifics from them. Then confirm that you understand. Focus only on them.

Read rest of the article here http://www.customerthink.com/blog/how_handle_customer_complaints

Relief for Forest Land Flat Owners

People owning flats on so called forest land can heave a sigh of relief.

According to reports appearing in most of the newspapers today, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has assured the flat owners that the state government will be filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court accepting its mistake of not notifying the forest lands acquired by it and delaying the mutation of the land records.

The Chief Minister has assured that flat owners / builders will have to pay a fine of .70 to 1.40 rupees per square feet of their flat area as penalty to regularize the flats. Therefore, if you have a flat measuring 1000 square foot you will have to pay a minimum penalty of 700 and a maximum of 1400 rupees to regularize your flats.

This money will be used for creating forests at an alternate location.

Also other plots that were acquired for forest purposes will be allowed to be constructed upon as relief to those plot owners who did not benefit from the errors of the government.

Mumbaikars can travel to these forests to breathe fresh air!

Such a peaceful day...

Yesterday (22nd April, 2008) the Auto Rickshaws were off Mumbai's roads. It was such a peaceful day driving around. It almost felt that the city had gone to sleep.

I could get from home at Mira Road to my office at Dahisar in 10 minutes flat. There were no traffic snarls at the Octroi Check post, no traffic at the toll naka and absolutely no waiting at traffic signals. In fact the traffic signals were put on the blink as there was practically no need to control the non-existing traffic!

All this was in protest against the State Governments decision to implement Electronic Meters in Taxi's and Auto-Rickshaw's. The drivers and owners do not want to have anything with this scheme. They say it is an unnecessary financial burden. The real reason may be that they will not be able to tinker with these meters once installed. I am sure there must be a host of companies that would stand to benefit it the decision was to be implemented.

I am also sure the common people would also stand to benefit it this decision was implemented. The Government is tasked with the responsibility of protecting the interest of common people, but then which government has actually done this!

It would be such a relief if these ugly tripeds were to disappear for ever, but that is wishful thinking. I am sure, bus travel would be cheaper, safer and environmentally better if the scrounge was to be removed from the suburbs of Mumbai.

People complain about rising prices but when it comes to them, they do not think about walking to a nearby destination but chose to jump into a waiting auto-rickshaw.

Anyway, other than Mumbai, Pune and some other parts of Maharashtra, the auto-rickshaw's and taxi's do not follow any meter system at all, therefore it makes no sense to insist on electronic meters in the first place.

Dear Chief Minister, please ensure that people charge by meters first before thinking of taking the next step of going electronic!

Thane worst affected by Forest Land Issue

According to a report appearing in DNA, Mumbai edition of 27th March 2008, Thane seems to be the worst hit by the Bombay High Court ruling that has termed many housing societies to be on forest land. As many as 25 prominent housing projects are likely to be affected, forest department records show.

Some of the schemes that will be affected are Rutu Enclave, Neelkanth Towers, Vanashree, Sai Krupa Complex, Whizkids, Suraj Water Park and Hiranandani Estate .

Sources in the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) say most of these housing projects were served stop work notices, which the builders ignored.

The TMC has records of all the stop work notices that were issued. Since the notices were issued when the buildings were still under construction, the builders cannot claim that they did not know that the constructions were coming up on forest land, said a senior TMC official. The government can therefore demolish all such projects, the official added.

Residents who have bought flats by shelling out hefty prices are now panicking, but builders and brokers from Thane district are confident of finding a solution to the problem.

The latest observation of the Bombay High Court pertains to about 1,500 hectares of land in Thane city, Kalyan, Murbad, Ulhasnagar, Ambarnath, Navi Mumbai, and Vasai tehsils of Thane district.

Update on Forest Land Issue in Mumbai

This is the list of survey numbers issued by the collectors office for those affected by the recent forest land issue in Mumbai.