More customers will complain, and that can be good news for your business
AI tools are helping customers write complaints they once would have skipped, and Forbes asks whether that flood is really a bad thing.
What happened
Forbes reports that AI tools like ChatGPT are making it easier for consumers to pursue legitimate complaints, including grievances they might previously have ignored. The article asks whether the resulting surge in complaints is actually a bad thing.
In plain English: a customer who once shrugged off a cold meal, a messy repair or a surprise fee can now ask a chatbot to help write a clear, organized message in seconds.
Why it matters
Writing a good complaint used to take time, patience and a bit of confidence. Plenty of people simply gave up.
AI lowers that barrier. You may see more complaints, and they may be better written and harder to brush off. That doesn't necessarily mean more problems. It may mean more people are speaking up about problems that were always there.
That's useful. A complaint is a customer telling you, for free, where something broke. The risk is slow handling. A well-argued message that sits unanswered for a week can look worse than the original problem.
If you use AI to help sort incoming complaints, keep a person in charge of the outcome. Morey J. Haber of BeyondTrust writes in Forbes that when an AI system makes a consequential decision, a human still needs to own the result. He also argues for clear thresholds where AI stops and human accountability begins. For complaints, refunds and apologies are good examples of where that line might sit.
What it means for your business
- Restaurants: Expect detailed messages about service, wait times and food. Treat repeated themes, like slow Friday tickets, as a free to-do list.
- Clinics and dental offices: Billing and scheduling complaints may arrive in more formal language. A quick, human acknowledgment keeps them from escalating.
- Home services and trades: Customers may write up missed arrival windows or unclear quotes in careful detail. Clear estimates and written follow-ups make those complaints easier to resolve.
- Hotels, travel and retail: If your business already gets many complaints, a simple triage system, sorted by urgency and topic, helps you respond fast to the serious ones.
One thing to try this week
Build a one-page complaint playbook. Include three things: a short reply template that thanks the customer and says what happens next, a target for acknowledging every complaint (for example, within one business day), and a named person who owns each case.
Then start a simple log, even a shared spreadsheet, with a column for the topic. In a month, read it from top to bottom. The patterns you find are probably worth more than any single complaint.