No, I don't mean are you an author!

If you receive bad or good service, exceptionally good or bad, do you write to those above? If you have ever written a letter of complaint have you ever written a letter of praise?

Welcome back, Sue! Saw your gardening post and realized that you were out of the hospital.

I have sent letters of complaint and letters of praise over the years. The praise letters are always easier to write, when you feel the warm fuzzies and want to tell people that they make a good product or provide a good service.
The complaint letters usually bring coupons for more of the stuff you complained about.
I've never had a praise letter acknowledged, but that's ok if the pat on the back gets to the right people.

I once wrote a letter of thanks to the MD of a company when I had received really exceptional service and a couple of years later I had cause to visit them again, the stores department, and mentioned they were very helpful. They told me that once someone had written to their boss and how thrilled they had been - I guess that was my letter! They had re-opened their stores department to give me a part when my washing machine broke down the afternoon before I was going on holiday on the morning boat, my washing was stuck in the machine!

I have just written to the hospital where I received my emergency treatment, the staff were amazing. They even bought me flowers to wear when my daughter came in to see me on her wedding day! The money I offered in payment was refused. So kind.

I have written a few times, to people when I have enjoyed, or disliked there products....I think the last time was to a Jigsaw manufacteur

If I receive exceptionally bad service I will fill out a complaint form if they provide one but won't usually take the time once I'm home. I just won't patronize them again. But if I receive exceptionally good service then I try to talk to a manager right then so the details don't get lost or muddled. I work in the service industry and we get some of both. And even negative reply's are appreciated, believe it or not.

P.S. Miss Jane
Time to change your signature isnt' it?

I write both praise and complaint letters or e.mails, though not too often, the last one being only a week ago to an Italian car hire company which had given us excellent service - and an excellent car.
I once complained to an airline about the seats we were allocated, and received an upgrade to super-business class on my next flight with them - which was from Tokyo to London!
I once wrote to the R.A.C. (Royal Automobile Club) praising a local garage who had turned out on Christmas eve afternoon, and fitted a complex part to my broken down car (which then was a Lancia Trevi). They had to modify a Fiat part in fact as no Lancia dealer was available, which was even more complex! My letter was acknowledged and the garage was given an RAC national award.
I think complaints should be accurate and constructive, and praise should be sincere and not too O.T.T!

This is a pet subject of mine! I have become increasingly disappointed in the quality of customer service in many businesses over the past several years. I'm not sure that proper training of service personnel is a high priority any longer, with telephone skills being one of my major complaints (being put on terminal hold; not being offered to have someone else help; not being offered to be transferred to voice mail or to take a message, etc...) I believe that if you were not taken care of at a level you consider to be appropriate, you have an obligation to let the management know. Just not doing business with them any more doesn't help them to improve (if they are so inclined to do so.) The may never know there was a problem. I also will make a point of letting management know of exceptional service, so they can build upon that. In service areas where tipping is appropriate, I always make sure that my tip reflects the quality of service as well. I recently took my children to Disneyland in California, and was so impressed by everyone there. They do everything in their power to make sure that every guest has a positive experience. From the cleanliness of the park to the efficiency of all of the operations...I had absolutely no complaints.

I have also written letters of complaint and praise. However, like fjohn said above, I've never had a letter of praise acknowledged in any way. Sometimes after sending a complaint letter, I'll receive a coupon for $5 off my next purchase or something along those lines. Once, after writing a complaint letter to Kraft Foods, someone from the company actually called me at home, thanked me for taking the time to write the letter, and assured me that the company was changing the product that prompted my complaint letter.

I always try to balance acknowledging both good and poor customer service. People need to know how they serve their customers, but I'm sure most people receive more negative feedback than positive.

I write both kinds of letters very often and I'll agree with the last posters - usually praise isn't acknowledged. I did write a comment on Wal-mart's website about a year ago praising the customer service and easy return policies of one of our local stores, and mentioning that another one of their stores in my area didn't get my business for several reasons. I was shocked the very next day to recieve a phone call from the manager of the store I had complained about, who asked me in detail about all my complaints, assured me that they would be discussed in the employee meeting, and sent me a $20 gift certificate. I appreciated that, and told him so, but his store hasn't improved....

Like most of the posters here I have written both Praise and Complaint.

For example for Christmas this year I got a very fancy Black and Decker Electric frying pan.
Well when I unpacked it we discovered that the lid had a huge piece broken off of it.

I emailed their customer service and with in 24 hrs had a reply and a new lid was being delivered by UPS from Chicago.
I wrote thanking them and to praise the customer service person who helped fix the problem.

So the new lid arrived and I had plugged in the frying pan and all of a sudden there was smoke coming from the electrical outlet on the frying pan.It had shorted it's self out and melted one of the contacts inside.

I contacted the same service person and the next morning we received a long distance phone call from their headquarters telling us that a brand new more expensive frying pan was on it's way to our house.

When I asked if they wanted the other frying pan back to see what had caused the problem the lady said she would send us the information and that UPS would be picking up the broken one.

I wrote the company and said I was impressed with their quick solution to my problem and that the Customer Service
Person was extremely helpful and courteous. I mentioned her name a few times in my letter so they knew she had gone out of her way to help.

Because of the first class treatment we received we shall purchase other Black and Decker items that we might need and that they sell.

I think writing a letter of praise goes further than one of complaint
PF

Most of the Forum regulars probably know that I teach Medical Terminology. Just recently I have inherited the Medical Reception and Customer Service classes as well. In fact, I taught my first official CS class yesterday (although I have done it before when the previous trainer was sick).

I try not to write letters of complaint unless there is a very real problem. My feeling is that we are all human and everyone makes mistakes. In addition, I am a bit of a perfectionist so I tend to be a bit fussier than most - so I don't like to complain in case I am making a mountain out of a molehill. I usually only write letters of complaint where there is a serious issue involved. The last letter of complaint I wrote was to our local school bus transport company concerning an issue that affected the safety of the children on the bus.

I also feel that if you are prepared to complain, you ought to be prepared to praise, so I would like to think that I write as many letters of praise as I do of complaint. I also know how much it means to me when my employer gets letters of praise for the job I have done. In eight years of teaching, I have probably received about seven or eight letters from satisfied clients. Luckily, there have been no letters of complaint, although there was one verbal one (which was not justified). Statistically, of course, people are much mroe likely to put a complaint in writing than they are to take the time and trouble to write a letter of commendation.

If I receive an acknowledgement from a company concerning a complaint, I am quite happy to continue to use their product or service. However, if they don't have the manners to respond, they lose my business forever. And they risk having their company featured in one of my customer service classes as a "bad example".

Yeah! I had a response to my letter to the hospital. Unfortunately he referred to a different hospital in the group and said he will pass on my comments! That should confuse the staff in the wrong hospital, especially the kitchen staff as I praised the food and have been told that the food in that hospital is pretty dire!

Hmmm, I have written a short note drawing his attention to the error, must now decide whether to post it to him or just leave matters as they are and let them find the error for themselves.

Those people should get it Sue, tell him about it, I would and make sure they get the praise due to them.

I hope my Note to that hospital arrives to the right people.
I hope you mail your reply back to him so he will correct his mistake.
They deserve credit and he should be ashamed he made the error. I am sure you were very specific with the name of the hospital and the staff.
Excellence and caring should be rewarded.
PF

Ah PF, I don't want him to feel daft. Hopefully he will pass the letter on to his secretary who will pass my thanks to the correct people.

I had mentioned two hospitals but made it clear in my letter which I was a patient in, the other I only visited the A&E department who sent me home thus perhaps causing my heart block.

As he is the head person I am sure he wouldn't mind you sending him a friendly note gently telling him of his mistake?
Plus why didn't his secretary catch it before he wrote back to you?

I am sure you will do what is right.
PF

I have now received THREE letters regarding my letter! One as mentioned before, one from the Department of Health and one from the Ambulance Service. The latter was saying that a copy of my origninal letter had been passed to them and they in turn were passing a copy to the driver who took me to the airport at 3.45am. It looks as if the messages are getting through.