>The takeaway is: if you're only giving good customer service to the people who complain publicly, you're doing it wrong. Speaking as a provider who has been i

>The takeaway is: if you're only giving good customer service to the people who complain publicly, you're doing it wrong. Speaking as a provider who has been in that situation before (e.g. losing a ticket, then responding to a public complaint) I agree completely. First off, 98% of your customers are not going to complain publicly. They are simply going to leave. And as I keep saying, the people who don't complain are the cash cows... the silent majority, from whom you get most of your money. Now, I'm not saying you should ignore public complaints... that would be bad business. Respond publicly and solve the problem, or at least give a refund. But you must treat the complainers like canaries. for every valid complaint (and yeah, you will get invalid complaints... respond to those too, and offer a refund, but it's okay to say "I'm sorry my service does not meet your needs." - you can't be all things to all people.) you need to review your processes, and figure out why the complaint wasn't resolved through normal channels.