How to show displeasure to a business in a meaningful manner?
 

Hello,

In the past, I have publicly commented on a business’s FB page. This has gotten spectacular attention and results. The feature is now something that many/most businesses shut off due to people like me.

So, how can I exert my levers of influence most effectively? Any tips?


(Also, my current gripe is pretty small, but I have been super brand loyal for decades to a company whose quality seems to have disappeared! Not going to vent on this forum.)

Thanks in advance!

Shop somewhere else.

However, not informing the business of your reason(s) for going elsewhere is not meaningful. IMO, a respectful conversation with somebody in charge makes sense.

It is a manufacturer. I have switched brands.

It is a quality decrease. Mostly disappointed.

How about an email direct to the company or the companies customer service/relations with your issue?

And some sleuthing can probably find email contact info for high chief muckety mucks too...

How mad are you? There's always a full page ad in the NY times or publication of your choice...

I think this is all that really works. Social media is monitored by marketing idiots, not decision makers. Find an email for a decision maker and explain why you're leaving the brand. If it were my company i'd appreciate the communication.

I think "shop elsewhere " does it for me. The last two times I voiced serious complaints to companies about their products, I was sent coupons for products I would never buy again.
Not terribly effective on their part.
Probably not very effective on mine.

Best
Les

im not going to bother doing the labor of telling a company why i stopped doing business with them. thats labor they should be doing, not me.

i just stop doing business with them. if they ask, then ill tell them, but if not, i dont care.

My typical M.O. is to find someone at the executive level, and email them.

Most recently I did this with Spectrum. The trash truck knocked their cable loose. Since the cable was still connected, Spectrum didn't see this as an issue. Unfortunately, it was physically blocking egress to my house.

After a half day of being put on hold and dismissed by their customer service team in India, I tracked down a senior VP's email address. My email was answered with a phone call an hour later, and the issue was resolved in the next hour. They also gave me two months of free service for my inconvenience.

Likely a company who’s quality has gone down knows it, because they made the changes to up their profit and don’t care if they lose you as a customer and probably did some “math” to see what effect losing some customers over quality would have on their new profit level and were okay with that number.

Find out the email address of the person who owns the business and write them a direct message.

Don't mention your "feelings". Focus on the facts and if possible emphasis anything that can be verified by a third party.

,.,,,At the end of the day, your wallet is under your control,.,

I wasn't having much luck in a dispute with a large company so I went onto the companies resister, looked up the name of the director/CEO. Then I sent the person I'd been unsuccessfully communicating with an email to say I was taking the Big Boss to the small claims court and your name will be mentioned. Wisely, the fella wanted to keep his job so did the refund.

I had a very bad experience with a Toyota service dept years ago. I complained in person at the time and got nowhere. I wrote an email to the GM and got a phone call the next day. He hooked me up with a refund, a remediation service call at no charge and a free service.

Working for a relatively large corporation and having front line experience with unhappy customers, I have some suggestions.
Don't:
-Be rude or crass.
-Make sweeping generalities or exaggerations "I will never" "Everyone says that..."
-Ramble on.
-Make threats ("I'm going to tell everyone...").

Do:
-Send a typed letter (they get so few of them so it stands out).
-Address it to the CEO (he won't read it but the admin assistant of his will).
-Courteously explain why you were dissatisfied, what events happened, what you had hoped to have as an outcome.
-Express regret that you are losing the value of their product or service.
-Advise that although you are just one consumer, you want the company to know why they lost a loyal customer since if it was your business, you would want to know.
-Provide your name and address.

It is my opinion that email is too easy to ignore. A written signed letter makes a much bigger impact.

I'm a few into it, so take it for what it's worth.

Critique is a form of caring.

If you didn't care, you'd just leave and be done with it.

To complain, means you care, as if, your words meant something, therefore you "offer" them for improvement.

Enough good stuff has been written above my comment to make the point clear.

Move on with life, or make a point in the methods mentioned, and move on anyway, expecting nothing.

Anything above nothing will be a bonus. You might be surprised.

This is what I’ve done with spectacular results.

Go onto their webpage and look at their corporate governance. Read their core values and mission statement.

Email their president or ceo and highlight your experience and ask if they feel that the actions of the business are inline with the mission statement and or core values - cite why you think they are not.

5hit happens very quickly.

The CEO’s name can easily be found on LinkedIn or the Governance section of the website… assume it is ‘First Name’.

I email ‘fname@company’, ‘first.name@company’, ‘name.f@company’ and have had good luck.

I only do this if I have to.

A good thing to do is to speak in a very neutral tone of voice and drop in a few legal terms so they know you can be BIG trouble if they don't take this opportunity to resolve the issue.

Example "It would be considered fair and reasonable to get a refund as the product is not fit for the purpose."

I had a very bad experience with an airline (frontier), which basically oversold our flight and made us miss our vacations. So I wrote a well crafted letter to the CEO, making it clear that I would publish this letter all over the internet, and I really meant it.
Few days letter, I got contacted by an executive assistant to the CEO, our tickets were promptly refunded and we got $500 extra for our woes. A sincerely written letter always goes a long way…