In the course of our careers, we sometimes find ourselves in situations where we are frustrated by one of our vendors. Maybe they consistently miss critical delivery schedules, overprice products or send you defective components. Sometimes they may have uncooperative sales or customer service people who make promises and do not deliver. Usually when we face one of these problems, we try our best to resolve it through local personnel or the company’s customer service department only to find ourselves going around in circles and not getting any satisfaction. One of the best ways to avoid much of this hassle is to bypass all of the mid level people and take your problem straight to the top of the organization by writing directly to the CEO.
Taking this action may seem drastic, but CEOs need to know when customers are frustrated with their people, product, or service. Also, CEOs are in a position to wade through red tape and take action. Some people do not like going straight to the top, because they fear angering lower level employees who might retaliate. While this may be a logical concern, people are unlikely to retaliate when they know you have opened a direct line to the top.
During my professional career and in my personal life, I have written to CEOs many times to resolve problems when I could not get satisfaction from people at lower levels of the company. Each time, my complaints were resolved to my satisfaction. When I write, I use a standard format that enables me to state my complaint without being confrontational or naming the specific people involved. In my standard form, I always start my letter the same way by saying; “A few years ago, I attended a customer service seminar where I was taught to value the customer who complains because they bring our attention to problems in our business and help us to improve. It is in that spirit that I am writing to you to discuss my recent problem.” I then go on to outline my specific problem.
I used this type of letter most recently when I had a problem when my car not riding properly after the automobile dealer had installed new shock absorbers. I first took my complaint to the service manager who had me bring the car in to have the installation checked. The service manager returned the car to me saying that their mechanics could find nothing wrong and that I should expect a car with new shock absorbers to ride differently. I disagreed with him, but rather than get involved in a protracted argument I decided to go straight to the top and send my standard letter of complaint to the CEO of the corporation that owned that dealership and many others.
Four days after sending my letter, I received a telephone call from the general manager of the dealership. He told me that they would immediately refund fifty percent of the original amount I had paid for the shock absorbers and he asked if I would bring my car to him so that he could personally test drive it. After he gave my car an extended test drive, he agreed that there was definitely something wrong. He told me that he would assign the car to his best mechanic to solve the problem. He also gave me a “top of the line” loaner to use while they worked on my car. When they returned my car, it ran perfectly. The mechanic who had worked on it said that he had removed the new shocks and run some bench tests on them. The tests indicated that they did not work properly when under load.
I have no idea exactly what action the corporate CEO took after reading my letter of complaint. I only know that it got instant results and it demonstrated again that to avoid frustration with poor customer service it is sometimes best to bypass all of the mid level people and take your problem straight to the top of the organization.
