Group Mentality

Have you ever noticed how groups of people can whip themselves into a frenzy about an issue? They come storming up to your customer services desk and create absolute stink complaining about it... then when you investigate you find that the whole thing was just NOT TRUE!

I have come across this several times.

Group complaining mentality can be a dangerous and frustrating thing. It is relatively easy to cope with an individual person who has made a mistake and is complaining about it indignantly... you can explain their error to them politely and they go off all sheepish-like. But when a whole group of people come in claiming the same thing, it is really hard to trust yourself when you find that they just can't be right.

I like to refer to this as "bus stop" complaining - as this is exactly what happens when groups of people complain to each other at a bus stop. It works like this:

1. One person suffers from a misconception about an incident
i.e. they misunderstand something or trigger a dispute with their own attitude, but can't see that they were wrong

2. Several other people hear about the incident and discuss it
- the first person's misconception is treated as truth by others who were not present, but are predisposed to think the worst of the company involved

3. Continued discussion creates increased anger within the group
- the version of events presented becomes fixed as truth in the minds of all the individuals within the group

4. The original instigator takes on the role of a hero and group whips itself into a defensive frenzy around this hero.
- Group participants cannot then accept the falsehood of the story, unless proven and presented in writing.

It is almost as if people within this sort of complaining gaggle want to be within a story or soap opera. They want a hero to worship and a bad guy (normally your company) to hate.

There is simply no use arguing with these people in person, especially if they all bombard you together. The only way you can deal with them is to take down all of the details, leave it for a week or so, then write to them, explaining the truth and apologising for any confusion.

In our company, we have discussed whether we should refuse to accept secondhand complaints, to avoid this very issue. "Were you involved, madam?" "No, I was just standing nearby... but I thought it was disgusting" "Well we can only take a complaint from the person who was actually involved, but thank you for calling!".

Needless to say, we didn't thing we could get away with this - not and maintain the true, caring spirit of customer services. But it is an odd phenomenon indeed.

People are definitely strange creatures when they are in groups!