In the UK we are for the most part extraordinarily polite. Most of us would apologise to a lamp post if we walked into it. We even say thank you to a cash machine when it hands us our money. This is all very lovely but are we capable of complaining when we get bad service? Well, not really. According to a new survey we not only are useless at complaining; some of us don’t even bother.

Of course the internet plays a big part in voicing opinions about businesses these days. Pretty much everyone uses it (look, you’re even using it now!) Most people are likely to moan about bad service on Twitter or Facebook and hope that maybe someone from that organisation sees it, rather than tackle someone face to face or over the ‘phone.

Online

As you’d expect our American cousins are more vocal than us in this department. US consumers are more likely to complain or to share a bad experience with followers/friends online than those in the UK. However – here’s that polite thing again – UK consumers are more likely to recommend a company that supplies good service.

This does kind of reinforce the old stereotypes: British people are polite and Americans are loud and vocal but as the internet takes over as the prime form of communication, it just goes to show that businesses need to be more on the ball. They have to get online, see what people are saying about them and turn those complaints into positives. Be seen to react to an online complaint and be seen to offer good service as a result.

Investigate

The way you react will probably receive more “retweets” and “shares” than the original complaint. So get online and get looking. Otherwise if you don’t end up with a positive online presence, you’ve got no right to complain!

For the original stats and article, have a look here… http://www.customerexperiencemagazine.co.uk/new-digital-section/latest-digital-news/us-consumers-twice-as-likely-to-share-a-bad-service-experience-than-uk-counterparts/