Sometimes you just have to complain

Have you ever bought something that you thought was special, only to find that it was less than spectacular when you got it out of the box? Or had a piece of machinery or technology not deliver the performance you expected?

The outcome of this is called buyer's remorse and in some cases you have to put up with it, as caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). But when there are clear cases in life where we experience failure to deliver by products and services, we have the right (and in my view the "duty") to return the product or complain about substandard service. As a consumer, this right is backed by the Consumer Guarantees Act and the Fair Trading Act.

I never used to complain or make a fuss until I learned negotiating skills; from this point forward I have always alerted producers of products and providers of a service to their shortcomings. And, the truth is, if you or your team are providing low standards of service, you won't know unless you are told.

I have written about courier companies who astound me by delivering when it best suits their timetable rather than in the fastest possible time.

As another example of shortcomings, on one occasion we stayed in a reasonably well-known chain and were allocated a room which in no way matched the website photos.

Nostalgia has its place, but when it comes to staying away from home (and at the prices charged) you generally don't want to stay in accommodation where the fittings and fixtures look older than the house in which you grew up.

So we checked out of there and found an alternative, and I sent a polite email to their head office suggesting they invest in renovating the site or change the motto of the hotel to "where the 1960s and flat-screen TVs collide".

Your business may have issues with suppliers from time to time and in such cases it is even more important not to accept substandard service because their failures will transfer to the experience and value received by your customers. So there is a "double negative" here and it is vitally important that you take control of it.

If you have service-level agreements and/or documented quality standards you should enforce these and make sure you do everything you can to avoid a repeat.

It is said that we Kiwis don't complain enough and there is truth to that. If you don't like to complain or don't like the word it might be time to change your approach, because you deserve the best when it comes to parting with your hard-earned money.