Business and Consumer Complaints and Requests 8 Business and Consumer Complaints and Requests According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, 68 percent of cus- tomers who leave a business (and never go back) do so because a manager, owner, or employee has treated them with indifference. In addition, 96 percent of dis- satisfied customers don't bother to complain; they simply stop buying. Even worse, the average dissatisfied customer tells eight to 10 people about his or her negative experience with you. In this chapter, you will find model correspondence for making and handling complaints and requests as both a businessperson and a consumer. In an ideal situation, a person makes a request and you oblige. Everybody's happy. But in the real world, you simply can't do what everyone asks you to do. When this happens, it's a good idea to put your refusal into writing so there can be no misunderstandings. The following samples will give you a good idea how to say no and yet remain on good terms. E-mail is an appropriate medium for nearly all of the correspondence de- scribed in this chapter. Just adapt the actual message portion of the sample letters or memos you see in this chapter to the format and structure of e-mail. (Whenever the sample we provided needed very detailed tweaking to work with e-mail, or when e-mail was the primary way to send a particular message, we've provided a specific e-mail sample for your reference.) As always, be on the look- out for the icon, indicating correspondence for which e-mail is not suitable. Business requests Refusal of an unrealistic request from a customer Background: Sometimes we cannot (or are unwilling to) do everything a customer asks us. But even when customers are at fault or their expectations 177