So You Need Help Complaining?

We've all been there. At a restaurant, department store, amusement park, etc. Trying to enjoy our day and expecting to be waited on hand over foot, when it happens (cue the dramatic music.) Bad service everywhere. It attacks like ants on a cupcake. Your natural reaction is to “fight back” somehow. But how? Your best bet, as I have found in the past, is to write a complaint letter.

Here are a few tips to help you write that letter that will spark some attention.

1. Get all the names of employees that assisted you, including the manager on duty. This will help with authenticity, plus the management team can coach their employees one on one about the incident.
2. Remember the time and date of the incident. Note this in your letter to the company's corporate location.
3. When writing your letter, sound calm, yet stern. You don't want whoever reads your letter to think you are just an irate customer, out to get someone or something.
4. Describe your visit in complete detail, expressing your feelings and the feelings of others around you
5. Even if the company has an email address to their customer service department, send it through the post office. Many emails do not go directly to the “head” of the department. If you expect to see action, or a worthy response, your letter needs to go to the top.
6. And finally, although the purpose of your letter is to “complain,” note the good things that might have happened, as well. You may have had terrible service from Joe, but maybe Jane was outstanding.

After finishing these few steps, your complaint letter is ready to be signed, sealed and delivered. Most likely you will receive a response of some sort, maybe even a “freebie” or refund. Good luck and happy complaining.