© 2023

Many companies retain the services of Non- Executive Directors to provide insight and expertise not currently on their own payroll. Volkswagen AG has employee representatives on its board, but no customer representatives. Likewise, BMW Group has employees on it’s Supervisory Board, along with major shareholders and business leaders, but no customers. Nationwide Building Society [who are not featured in the book] do not have a Non- Executive who is simply just a valued Nationwide customer. I’m convinced that the right customer - not just there to make up numbers - can provide valuable insight and an indication of how a company values its customers.

Do Company Leadership Teams

need an additional voice?

Many Business Schools run modules around the importance to businesses of getting the customer experience, customer service, customer retention etc., right, and task students with identifying service innovations and marketing initiatives to achieve this. Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining incorporates 5 case studies where the backgrounds to each complaint are laid bare, along with details of what the customer did to achieve the outcome they were looking for. Flip that around, and you have 5 real-life case studies for students to come up with their interpretations for how those companies [BMW, VW, TUI and Microsoft] could have addressed the customer service situation differently.

Business School Students

WHY YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD WELCOME CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
Unless a customer complains when there is a problem with the goods or services you sell, how else do you know that something needs putting right? Time and time again the research, from many global organisations such as Harvard Business Review, Accenture, KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers [PwC], highlights the importance of a robust customer service, not just because its the right thing to do for customers, but because it’s great for your business too. Genuine complaints are an opportunity to address situations that might otherwise result in customers taking their business elsewhere. And if customers have invested their time and money in your brand, because it speaks to their personality, values and aspirations, then more likely than just wanting a ‘quick financial gain’, they actually want you to solve the issue so that they and other customers get the experience they craved.
HUMAN INTERACTION - NOT TECHNOLOGY
Cultures around the globe vary and, according to a PcW survey of American consumers, only 3% were happy with a technology-only response when things go wrong. We want to talk directly to someone, we want them to listen, and we want them to say the ‘sorry’ word as if they mean it. You need to have a process that can be easily accessed - perhaps initially by technology - so that more customers give you an opportunity to put their complaint right. Only a staggeringly small 4% of customers complain, the rest just take their business elsewhere, and with that you’ve lost a golden opportunity to transform a customer’s problem into customer loyalty.
ASK ME - DON’T ASSUME
My book, Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining, highlights some poor examples of customer service when goods and services didn’t perform as expected or advertised. It was only once the situation with my complaints had escalated to the CEO that there was any dialogue around what an acceptable resolution would look like from my perspective. None of the respective customer service teams asked me what I was looking for. If BMW, for example, had not lied to me [and others] about their sub-standard DAB Radio, I would probably have accepted a special BMW cable to connect my iPhone to the audio system. Instead, over 10 months my complaint escalated to the stage where they eventually took back my car, refunding me in full the initial finance deposit and all 10 monthly payments. Essentially, I’d enjoyed ‘free BMW motoring’ for 10 months, and they had a car back with 10 months depreciation, which might have been averted for the sake of a £100 cable. They didn’t ask. And then I made a short video with damming evidence of their lies, at which point everything changed.
BUY NOW

In the UK, 80% of our GDP is generated by the service sector and almost 80% of people are employed in customer-facing roles. Whilst this book highlights my success as consumer, the real lessons to be learnt from my book are for business leaders and, to put it bluntly, “How not to treat your customers when YOUR goods and Services Don’t Perform as Expected.” In my real-life examples, BMW, VW, TUI, Microsoft and the Chateau Impney Hotel would have all saved money by providing excellent customer service as a given, and not just because I embarrassed them into it.

Why Customer Service Matters

to the UK Economy

ESSENTIAL COURSE READING
offer far more than just the shared appreciation of the written word[s]. They bring people together socially, even when socially-distanced over Zoom, and, unless you are a specialist group, help members navigate through a selection of literary, fiction, non-fiction, the-book-of-the-movie, and more. Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining brings short-story telling to the world of consumer championing, and almost certainly provides clubs with a book that’s unlike anything your members will have read before, and one that will generate passionate discussion across many different aspects; short stories, David v. Goliath consumer victories, and even complaints that individuals have had themselves! In fact, there are many social conversations that this book will generate. Act quickly if your book club would like [signed or unsigned] first editions for your members at a great price. Contact me directly for orders of five or more copies to a single address
Book Clubs
HAVE YOU GOT A BAD BMW DAB RADIO?
I’m curious to know how many BMW drivers, like me, were told that problems with the ‘signal loss’ on their DAB radios were caused by poor transmission quality of Digital Audio Broadcasting [DAB] in the UK? Drop me a line here to share your experience with me.
PRAISE FOR Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining…
“Just laughing my way through your book, it’s brilliant.” “What is it about corporates not being able to say ‘sorry’?” “I laughed out loud at the Mexico holiday issues.” “My BMW Radio does that too!”
Discover how I got a £1500 refund from TUI when our Mexican resort coastline was blighted with seaweed instead of the “White Sands and Warm Seas” promised in their brochure and website advertising.
#meTUI
Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining The perfect gift for the ‘moaner’ in your life!
Made with Xara

Many companies retain the services of Non- Executive Directors to provide insight and expertise not currently on their own payroll. Volkswagen AG has employee representatives on its board, but no customer representatives. Likewise, BMW Group has employees on it’s Supervisory Board, along with major shareholders and business leaders, but no customers. Nationwide Building Society [who are not featured in the book] do not have a Non-Executive who is simply just a valued Nationwide customer. I’m convinced that the right customer - not just there to make up numbers - can provide valuable insight and an indication of how a company values its customers.

Do Company Leadership Teams

need an additional voice?

Many Business Schools run modules around the importance to businesses of getting the customer experience, customer service, customer retention etc., right, and task students with identifying service innovations and marketing initiatives to achieve this. Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining incorporates 5 case studies where the backgrounds to each complaint are laid bare, along with details of what the customer did to achieve the outcome they were looking for. Flip that around, and you have 5 real-life case studies for students to come up with their interpretations for how those companies [BMW, VW, TUI and Microsoft] could have addressed the customer service situation differently.

Business School Students

WHY YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD WELCOME CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS
BUY NOW
Unless a customer complains when there is a problem with the goods or services you sell, how else do you know that something needs putting right? Time and time again the research, from many global organisations such as Harvard Business Review, Accenture, KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers [PwC], highlights the importance of a robust customer service, not just because its the right thing to do for customers, but because it’s great for your business too. Genuine complaints are an opportunity to address situations that might otherwise result in customers taking their business elsewhere. And if customers have invested their time and money in your brand, because it speaks to their personality, values and aspirations, then more likely than just wanting a ‘quick financial gain’, they actually want you to solve the issue so that they and other customers get the experience they craved.
HUMAN INTERACTION - NOT TECHNOLOGY
Cultures around the globe vary and, according to a PcW survey of American consumers, only 3% were happy with a technology-only response when things go wrong. We want to talk directly to someone, we want them to listen, and we want them to say the ‘sorry’ word as if they mean it. You need to have a process that can be easily accessed - perhaps initially by technology - so that more customers give you an opportunity to put their complaint right. Only a staggeringly small 4% of customers complain, the rest just take their business elsewhere, and with that you’ve lost a golden opportunity to transform a customer’s problem into customer loyalty.
ASK ME - DON’T ASSUME
My book, Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining, highlights some poor examples of customer service when goods and services didn’t perform as expected or advertised. It was only once the situation with my complaints had escalated to the CEO that there was any dialogue around what an acceptable resolution would look like from my perspective. None of the respective customer service teams asked me what I was looking for. If BMW, for example, had not lied to me [and others] about their sub-standard DAB Radio, I would probably have accepted a special BMW cable to connect my iPhone to the audio system. Instead, over 10 months my complaint escalated to the stage where they eventually took back my car, refunding me in full the initial finance deposit and all 10 monthly payments. Essentially, I’d enjoyed ‘free BMW motoring’ for 10 months, and they had a car back with 10 months depreciation, which might have been averted for the sake of a £100 cable. They didn’t ask. And then I made a short video with damming evidence of their lies, at which point everything changed.
© DroitwichNet Limited 2023

In the UK, 80% of our GDP is generated by the service sector and almost 80% of people are employed in customer-facing roles. Whilst this book highlights my success as consumer, the real lessons to be learnt from my book are for business leaders and, to put it bluntly, “How not to treat your customers when YOUR goods and Services Don’t Perform as Expected.” In my real-life examples, BMW, VW, TUI, Microsoft and the Chateau Impney Hotel would have all saved money by providing excellent customer service as a given, and not just because I embarrassed them into it.

Why Customer Service Matters

to the UK Economy

ESSENTIAL COURSE READING
Book Clubs
offer far more than just the shared appreciation of the written word[s]. They bring people together socially, even when socially-distanced over Zoom, and, unless you are a specialist group, help members navigate through a selection of literary, fiction, non- fiction, the-book-of-the-movie, and more. Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining brings short-story telling to the world of consumer championing, and almost certainly provides clubs with a book that’s unlike anything your members will have read before, and one that will generate passionate discussion across many different aspects; short stories, David v. Goliath consumer victories, and even complaints that individuals have had themselves! In fact, there are many social conversations that this book will generate. Act quickly if your book club would like [signed or unsigned] first editions for your members at a great price. Contact me directly for orders of five or more copies to a single address
[BOOK CLUBS]
HAVE YOU GOT A BAD BMW DAB RADIO? I’m curious to know how many BMW drivers, like me, were told that problems with the ‘signal loss’ on their DAB radios were caused by poor transmission quality of Digital Audio Broadcasting [DAB] in the UK? Drop me a line here to share your experience with me.
Discover how I got a £1500 refund from TUI when our Mexican resort coastline was blighted with seaweed instead of the “White Sands and Warm Seas” promised in their brochure and website advertising.
#meTUI
PRAISE FOR Keep Calm and Carry on Complaining…
• “Just laughing my way through your book, it’s brilliant.” • “What is it about corporates not being able to say ‘sorry’?” • “I laughed out loud at the Mexico holiday issues.” • “My BMW Radio does that too!”