What do Burberry and the Energy sector have in common?

What do Burberry and the Energy sector have in common? More confident and complaining stakeholders. A few days ago 53% of Burberry investors voted against the Board's remuneration report which included big share pay-outs to the chief executive. Today the Energy Ombudsman reported that there was a doubling of customer complaints in the first 6 months of the year compared to the previous year. So it looks like a whole bunch of key stakeholders from a range of sectors are starting to feel a bit more empowered about what they regard as unfair treatment.

The critical issue now is how these organisations, and others like them, respond and from the report of Burberry's Chairman's response who stated that the vote against them was "disappointing" some still don't seem to get it. It will be even more "disappointing" when customers and investors start to walk. The positive factor in taking complaint handling and negative voting seriously is that it provides valuable feedback. With good "root-cause analysis" of complaints businesses can start to address the issues before it's too late. The old adage "a customer complaining is a loyal customer giving you a second chance" may no longer be true but listening to stakeholders,taking them seriously and treating them with respect, are good starting points in rebuilding trust and loyalty.