The third edition of this bestseller (over 275,000 copies sold) builds on the tested formula that helps organizations recognize the value of complaints using updated examples and concepts in the age of COVID-19. The first edition of A Complaint Is a Gift introduced the revolutionary notion that customer complaints are not annoyances to be dodged, denied, or buried but are instead valuable pieces of feedback—not to mention your best bargain in market research. Complaints provide a feedback mechanism that can help organizations rapidly and inexpensively strengthen products, service style, and market focus. Most importantly, complaints that are well received create customer loyalty. This new edition condenses the tried and true eight-step formula into a tighter, more efficient three-step formula. From her work with clients, the author has updated industry-specific complaint examples and added in new concepts, such as a process that enables employees to handle complaints with increased emotional resilience—something that is sorely needed since dealing with increasingly difficult customers is a common occurrence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Handling complaints doesn’t have to be a negative, soul-crushing experience. Janelle Barlow gives the right tools to treat each of them as a source of innovative ideas that can transform your business. Having surveyed more than 10,000 customers over the past two decades about what goes down when things go wrong with products and services, our National Customer Rage study has afforded me a privileged point of view of the customer complaining experience. Perplexed about and disappointed by the obvious ineptness of complaint handling today, corporate leaders and the media are quick to ask, 'what it will take for companies to turn the corner and deliver a better experience when customers have problems'? Janelle Barlow's newest book - A Complaint Is A Gift (3rd Ed.) - offers a profoundly practical answer to that all-important question. Every customer experience practitioner should own a copy of this book and place it front and center on their bookshelf. Blending her considerable experience in the field, real-world examples and a body of authoritative research, Barlow offers CX professionals an invaluable strategic and hands-on toolkit for improving complaint management in their own organizations. If your organization is looking to transform its complaint management process and reap the many benefits of so doing, Barlow's book is a must-have resource. Scott M. Broetzmann, Author of the National Customer Rage study, President & CEO, Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC) When Steve Piersanti, founder of Berrett-Koehler, called me in 2021, and asked if I would consider writing a third edition to A Complaint Is a Gift, I nearly fell out of my chair. He thought I could do that in a few months. My expectation of 2nd or 3rd editions, or even more, is that the new edition has to be substantially new. The 2nd edition was written in 2008, so that was 14 years ago so I thought there was enough new material available about complaint handling and I could update the book.  So, I thought about it for a couple of minutes and said, "Yes." It has taken me much longer to complete than I originally thought. One big change in the service world is that customers are more and more difficult to deal with. Covid has had a lot to do with this. That meant writing a new chapter on Mental Fortitude.  The Internet and online complaining has changed as well. And I had reworked the Complaint Is a Gift Formula, which has been a central focus of the 1st and 2nd editions.    This has not been a particularly easy journey. I'm not complaining, but if you think that all people do is to get a new Forward to their last editions, that's not what happened in my case.  I would say that about 80% of the book is new material, new ideas, and new examples.  And then I got the idea of producing a workbook to accompany the book and preparing a Train the Trainer program to accompany the workbook.  Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever worked harder to prepare all these materials.  The workbook was done in conjunction with Victoria Holtz, and she is listed as coauthor of the Workbook. We decided we could come up with 101 exercises to accompany the book, and we did. In fact, we probably have another 50 - 75 already produced for the 2nd version of the workbook. We'll do that if the feedback we receive is, "Yes, we need even more exercises."   So, it will be up to our readers! This meant producing a new web page and increasing the visibility of our LinkedIn Pages.  It's all been done, as much as social media and web pages can ever be done! We hope you will visit us in these locations.  The web page is and the LinkedInPages are under our names.  You'll also find another one devoted solely to A Complaint Is a Gift.  In addition to the Berrett-Koehler books, we have new videos available.  I am working on a new