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A New Year's Resolution
I can sometimes be a crotchety old man. I’ll admit it. I’ve had to learn some issues of anger management in my own life, and so I thought I’d toss out a couple of thoughts in that direction. You see, in my job here, I have a foot in the consumer end and another foot in the industry. I listen to both sides, and what I hear often conflicts with the other side.

I try to do a nice and pleasant job of bringing manufacturers bad news about their products, often conducting such business in private. Sometimes consumers contact me with a complaint which they feel hasn’t been adequately addressed by some company. If I have heard several complaints on the same topic, I may ask someone at the company about it. In that way, I sometimes act as a conduit, though that’s not the most effective use of my time.

Some of the letters and e-mails I get are nearly incoherent while others are accusatory and hugely negative. Usually they aren’t an assault on me, but I still don’t like the tone. In fact, I always reject accusatory letters right away. I get letters loaded with impossible generalities such as, “They always make such junk!” or “They never make good products.” Always and never are trigger words in generalities.

I hate to say it, but my colleagues in the industry often complain that end consumers often are trying to get something free or are attempting to obscure their fault in the failure of an item. One company told of a locomotive returned to them, a regular DC locomotive which had been left on DCC until the motor burned up. The customer wanted a new locomotive, something they were not entitled to receive under the warranty. When their claim was rejected, the customer then became angry and eventually laced out a string of vulgarities. Some companies tell me that finding nice, young people who will sit and remain calm under such circumstances is not easy. They usually burn out fairly quickly and want to move to other jobs.

Perhaps this old man could offer a little advice: USP.

The “U” stands for Useful. Communications which are loaded down with generalities are, by their very nature, not particularly useful. We know that you are unhappy, but we really don’t know why. To make a complaint useful, leave out the generalities and instead describe the exact events which led up to the failure. If you opened the box and the model was broken already but the packaging wasn’t crushed, the company wants to know this. Follow their claim procedures and please be patient. That’s the useful way.

The “S” stands for Specific. Give the specifics and avoid telling the reader or listener about your experiences on the Such & Such Railroad. This is part of an overall business transaction. Take your time to think through what you are writing or saying to make sure it is specific and useful. Confine your complaints to the warranty problems. If you think the color is wrong (“that green is just too light”) or they’ve produced the phase IIb version instead of the Ia, those are not problems covered under anyone’s warranty.

And finally, the “P” stands for keep it Positive. Some companies have a policy of protecting their employees, which makes sense since the person who answers the phone is not the same one who designed or assembled your model. These phone employees may be told that if a person becomes angry or says anything offensive, simply hang up. When people allow themselves to become irate, they often become incoherent in the process. Thus, the very process of becoming angry may turn out to be your worst enemy.

USP: Useful, Specific, and Positive.

This is what your complaint should be. Don’t expect to get free locomotives for life out of this complaint process. Don’t yell at the help. Don’t destroy your focus by shotgun complaints. Most of all don’t say or write anything you wouldn’t say into the pulpit microphone during church services. Be nice. You’d be surprised how many really nice and charming people you’ll find in this industry. They really do want to help you out, if they can figure out what the problem is and how they can help you.

Try some USP in 2005 and let me know if it works.
— John Sipple
To respond to this month's Editorial, send comments to: Editorial@modelrailroadnews.com