Hug Your Haters Book Summary - Hug Your Haters Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Hug Your Haters summary

Name: Hug Your Haters
Rating: 4.2 (25 reviews)
Author: Jay Baer

Jay Baer

How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers

4.2 (25 ratings)

13 mins

Table of Contents

Hug Your Haters
summarized in 6 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? Get the best out of customer complaints.

We all love praise. And we love those who praise us. But actually, there are good reasons to appreciate your company’s critics every bit as much as you cherish its admirers – after all, it’s the critics who tell you what to do to make things even better than they already are.

But what’s the best way to deal with critics?

That’s one of the questions these blinks answer, and it’s a vital one, because if you don’t handle complaints well, your customers will give up on your company for good – and tell everyone on Facebook that you suck. But if you do it right, you can turn your most angry and frustrated customers into devoted followers.

These blinks provide lots of good advice on how to charm your company’s critics – offline and online.

And along the way, you’ll discover

why customers of Fresh Brothers Pizza are glad if their pizza arrives a little too late;
what’s so bad about putting an angry client on hold; and
why passengers who forget their stuff at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport become such great fans of KLM.

It’s crucial for your business to respond well to customer complaints.

Do you enjoy calling customer support hotlines? Being on hold for hours listening to muzak? Or does this experience make you wonder why companies invest huge sums of money in advertising to attract what are primarily new customers while investing zilch in customer service?

In such situations, it might seem like these companies don’t care about holding on to their existing customers and that’s a major mistake. Because naturally, it’s key for a company to retain the customers it already has.

In fact, retaining a single extra percent of your customer base can boost your profits by 25 to 85 percent!

But how can you be sure your customers will remain loyal?

Well, it helps to listen to their complaints and show them that you’ve got their satisfaction in mind. After all, if your customer is making the effort to complain, it’s likely they’re willing to stick with you, at least for now. So, if you address the customer’s grievances appropriately, chances are they’ll remain a customer and feel a sense of duty to your business.

For instance, Debbie Goldberg, a co-owner of Fresh Brothers Pizza, makes an effort to personally answer every Yelp review. To be fair, she receives very few poor reviews, but when she does, she takes extreme care to address the reviewer.

She starts by politely apologizing for the customer’s bad experience. Then she acknowledges the problem they’ve raised, making it clear that the company is already working on fixing it.

And finally, she offers them a gift certificate to make up for their trouble. With these simple steps, Goldberg has retained the favor of countless customers that the company would otherwise have lost.

Learn from customer feedback and be more accommodating than your competitors.

Imagine you’re at a dance class to prepare for your wedding. If the instructor never points out to you that you’re basically crushing the life out of your partner, you’ll keep doing just that.

That’s because we sometimes need negative feedback to improve our performance and in the case of companies, this feedback generally comes from customers.

Attend to the needs of your offstage critics by dealing with them as people and quickly resolving their issues.

Even in this age of instantaneous digital communication, most complainers vent their frustration in private through an email to customer service and not via Facebook. And if you know what’s good for your business, you’ll want to keep it that way. So, to keep complaints private and retain customers, use the mnemonic H.O.U.R.S.

First, be Human. That means interacting with your customers in a personable way, showing that you see them as people, not just data points. To do so you need to show your concern and avoid boilerplate messages.

To win back the favor of your haters, find them, show them you care and answer them publicly.

Someone who criticizes your company publicly is not necessarily expecting you to answer them, but you always should. To do so, you can use the mnemonic F.E.A.R.S.

First, to resolve public complaints you need to Find them. You can use services like Google Alerts and social media listening software like Mention.net for this.

Businesses need to respond to reviews across all channels.

Every day we are growing more connected through a variety of online channels from social networks to rating portals. The impact of this technological connection on the world of business has been enormous.

That’s because all these channels offer customers unprecedented power over corporations. For instance, Google Reviews, Twitter, Facebook and online forums all offer avenues to express satisfaction – or dissatisfaction – with a given product or service.

Deal with your customers’ problems proactively and they’ll be loyal for life.

So, responding to complaints is key, but why wait for a complaint?

After all, if you want your customers to value you, it’s a great idea to correct a mistake right away, before anyone even has time to mention it. In fact, you can often prevent customers from complaining by making up for errors as soon as they occur.

Want to see all full key ideas from Hug Your Haters?

Key ideas in Hug Your Haters

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Hug Your Haters about?

Hug Your Haters (2016) is a guide to using disgruntled customers to improve your business. These blinks explain why it pays to listen and respond to negative reviews and how you can turn your crabbiest customers into your biggest fans.

Best quote from Hug Your Haters

Hugging your haters gives you the chance to turn lemons into lemonade, morph bad news into good, and keep the customers you already have.

—Jay Baer

Who should read Hug Your Haters?

Social media specialists
Customer service professionals
Business owners

About the Author

Jay Baer is a marketing expert and president of the global consulting firm Convince & Convert. He has advised some of the most iconic organizations in the world, including Nike and the United Nations, and is the author of five New York Times best sellers.

Categories with Hug Your Haters

Marketing & Sales Communication Skills

Books like Hug Your Haters

Customer WinBack

Jill Griffin and Michael W. Lowenstein

How to Recapture Lost Customers – And Keep Them Loyal

Using Great Customer Service To Create Rabid Fans

11 min

4.5

The Customer Service Revolution

John R. DiJulius III

Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World

11 min

4.3

Talk Triggers

Jay Baer and Daniel Lemin

The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth

16 min

4.5

Likeable Social Media

Dave Kerpen

How To Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, & Be Generally Amazing On All Social Networks That Matter

The Art of Split-Second Persuasion

17 min

4.7

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

Dr. Daniel G. Amen

The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness

Everybody falls, but the key is knowing how to get up again

20 min

4.4

Content Rules

Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman

How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and more) that Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business

18 min

3.9

Never Split the Difference (New Version)

Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

19 min

4.5

Feedback (and Other Dirty Words)

M. Tamra Chandler and Laura Dowling Grealish

Why We Fear It, How to Fix It

22 min

4.4

The Laws of Human Nature

Robert Greene

What affects your day-to-day life

Strategies and Skills that Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed

Fire Your Boss, Do What You Love and Work Better to Live More

Your Personal Guide to the Mastery of Magic Words

14 min

4.7

Powershift

Daymond John with Daniel Paisner

Transform Any Situation, Close Any Deal, and Achieve Any Outcome

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

22 min

4.6

Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself

Joe Dispenza

How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

16 min

4.6

Your Brain on Art

Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross

How the Arts Transform Us

17 min

4.6

Habits of a Happy Brain

Loretta Graziano Breuning

Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin & Endorphin Levels

A Self-Help Book for Societies

The Case for Rational Compassion

Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or, How to Become an Expert in Just About Anything

17 min

4.3

Follow Up and Close the Sale

Jeff Shore

Make Easy (and Effective) Follow-Up Your Winning Habit

What the Rich Teach Their Kids about Money – That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection

Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong

21 min

3.9

The Courage to Be Free

Ron DeSantis

Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival

An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman

How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others

22 min

4.6

Difficult Conversations

Douglas Stone

How to Discuss What Matters Most

14 min

4.1

The Enneagram at Work

Jim McPartlin with Anna Akbari

Unlocking the Power of Type to Lead and Succeed

27 min

4.4

The Everyday Hero Manifesto

Robin Sharma

Activate Your Positivity, Maximize Your Productivity, Serve The World

What You're Missing and Why It Matters

22 min

4.5

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook

Matthew McKay

Practical DBT Exercises for Learning Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Tolerance

15 min

4.6

Discipline Equals Freedom

Start, Stay, or Leave

Trey Gowdy

The Art of Decision Making

How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work and Life

16 min

3.8

My Morning Routine

Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander

How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired

27 min

4.1

Charismatic Leadership (New Version)

Kevin Murray

The Skills You Can Learn to Motivate High Performance in Others

21 min

4.6

Value Proposition Design

Alexander Osterwalder

How to Create Products and Services Customers Want

15 min

4.3

The Fast Diet

Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer

Lose Weight, Stay Healthy and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting

14 min

4.3

Verbal Judo

George J. Thompson and Jerry B. Jenkins

The Gentle Art of Persuasion

19 min

4.3

The Emotional Lives of Teenagers

Lisa Damour

Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents

21 min

4.8

The Millionaire Fastlane

MJ DeMarco

Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime!

Effective Discipline for Children 2-12

17 min

3.8

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did)

Philippa Perry

Sound parenting advice based on psychology

The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible

21 min

4.7

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.