Wait, what?  Why would an organization need a Chief Complainer?  Isn’t there a push to increase employee satisfaction and retention?  What about the “Great Resignation?”  Aren’t businesses supposed to focus on keeping employees happy so that they stay?

Why would you want unhappy people working at your organization?  What’s the benefit of that?  They complain all the time.  They notice and point out every little thing that is wrong or going wrong or even what potentially could go wrong someday.  They’re kinda miserable people to be around with all their criticism.  And they’re just flat out killing the vibe, man!

But hang on one second.

Who would you rather have to inform you of problems?  Your customers?  Or your employees?  Employees can even warn you of problems before they happen because they may be able to see further down the road than you can.

“Proactive” is not rushing to solve a problem, it’s avoiding the problem in the first place.  But you can only avoid things if you know that they exist. 

It’s like a pothole on a road.  How could you avoid it if you don’t see it coming?  Yes, you may get lucky and not hit it even if you don’t see it, but isn’t it better to not rely on pure luck?  Isn’t it better to see the pothole and come up with a strategy to avoid it rather than closing your eyes and hoping nothing bad happens?

If you don’t have someone pointing out the things they notice, but that you don’t, how could you possibly be proactive about them?  You can’t.  You need to have someone observe and communicate to you about the pothole when you just aren’t seeing it.

You need someone else’s perspective, someone else’s knowledge, someone else’s experience in order to see all the potential potholes because guaranteed, no one person can see them all. 

Your organization needs a Chief Complainer to help you with this.

The benefits to having that person be an employee rather than a customer are:

·      No potential lost sales – if the person who lets you know about problems isn’t a paying customer, then you won’t have to worry about giving them a refund

·      Lower potential for negative PR – a customer can choose to complain about your organization to the world before they come to you, an employee will always come to your organization first

·      Their priorities and loyalty are to the organization (if you are treating them well) – customers are not as loyal to your organization as you are and they never will be, they have other choices no matter what you are selling

·      They’re already on the payroll – no need to hire outside consultants

So, how do you find these Chief Complainers?  Usually they are already in your organization.  Your only job is to encourage them to speak up and to provide them with a platform for voicing their concerns.  Often the tendency is to squash dissenting opinions – get on the bus or else we will fire you!  But these are your most valuable employees, the ones who will help save you from yourself.  Don’t push these employees away and don’t take the risk of losing them.  Your organization needs them.  

Success comes not only from doing things right, but also knowing what is going wrong and how to fix it.  Your business needs someone on the inside who can see things the way that customers will see them.  Your business needs someone on the inside who sees what could be better.  Your business needs someone on the inside who sees things differently than you do.  If you want your organization to grow and thrive, you need to have someone who is willing to voice the hard truths.  Give these employees a space to tell you what you may not want to hear.  Encourage them to speak up.  Don’t squash these voices.  Listen and pay attention to them.