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‘All You Do Is Complain’
Professor Charmine Härtel
Director of the Social and Economic Interface Research Network (SEIRnet)
Associate Dean (Staff Research Development)Faculty of Business and Economics
Monash University
Overview
• Why people complain: – Motivation for complaints– Customer characteristics
• Emotions in complaints: – Emotional consequences for customers– Consequences for the organisation
• Practical tips: How service providers can better manage complaints to ensure satisfying outcomes for:– Customers– The organisation
Customer Complaints
• Customers may complain because of:– Dissatisfaction with a product or service– Perceived injustice: violation of moral/ justice
norms or fairness
• Three types of complaints:– Voice complaints– Private complaints – Third party complaints
Complaint Motivation
• Complaints may be motivated by a sense of:– Egoism: based on self-interest and satisfying OWN desires– Altruism: concern for society, sense of helpfulness
• Complaints may be driven by:– Judgement: using problem-based strategies/ an analytical approach– Emotion: reaction to intensely felt emotions
• Complaints may by:– Process-related: perceptions of fairness about the processes
leading to an outcome– Outcome-related: perception that the outcome received is fair as a
result of evaluating it against norms and standards
Demographic Characteristics
• Previous research indicates that differences in demographic characteristics will influence the level of satisfaction experienced by customers
• Age: young people are more likely to complain
• Gender: women tend to have higher expectations when judging the quality of services, men tend to consider less information and take ‘shortcuts’ when evaluating service cues
• Income: higher income earners have lower expectations of interaction
speed and accessibility compared to lower income earners
The Role of Emotion in Complaints
• Regardless of why a customer is complaining, research indicates that they will often experience some emotional reaction (even if very low in intensity or duration)
• Consequently, research I am currently undertaking into emotion and customer complaints indicates that emotion in complaints is:– commonly triggered by breach of a belief system (organisation's
behaviour frequently identified as ‘wrong’)– sustained, negative and intense
Negative Emotions in Complaints
Commonly identified negative emotions in complaints include:
• Anger: feeling frustration, annoyance, rage, bitterness, disgust, vengefulness, hostility and the like
“Then I was really angry with her, lying in bed at night. I was wondering of things I could do to her, what nasty things, like scratching her car and every time she has an inspection staying there to tell everyone what a lying cow she is.”
• Sadness: feeling isolated, neglected and humiliated, defeated (triggered by lack of control)“We were prisoners of not being able to go and use it because we didn’t have a car”
• Fear: feeling anxiety, distress, worry and shock
Positive Emotions in Complaints
Commonly identified positive emotions in complaints include:
• Love: protection of family, often cited as motivation for complaining (particularly for males adopting a traditional social male role). Also protection of society against wrong doing.
“…it didn’t really affect me financially, but humiliated me something shocking. Took away every man’s dream; he earns and he toils for his family”
“I’m going to do something that’s going to stop you or make you think twice about doing it to people.”
• Joy: e.g. triumph at winning the battle.“I’m usually very calm and very good at negotiating and that sort of thing but when it came to “My House …!!” My little house, it was just a tragedy”
Neutral Emotions in Complaints
Commonly identified neutral emotions in complaints include:
• Surprise: amazement and disbelief at the situation.“I just couldn’t believe the guy’s gall”
“I thought the company had done their work really efficiently, as a property manager. It certainly was a bit of a shock.”
Emotion Related Consequence of Complaints for Customers
• In addition to the emotional reactions identified so far, customers can have related reactions including such things as physiological responses extreme as:
– sleep disorders
– hospitalisation
– requiring tranquilisers and sedation
Consequence of Complaints for Organisations
• Complaints that are not handled effectively can result in substantial damage for an organisation
• The wide variety of reasons that customers are motivated to complain mean that dealing with customer complaints is a difficult task
Dealing with Customer Complaints
• To successfully deal with a complaint to prevent serious financial or reputation damage, organisations should:
– be sensitive– not prejudge the importance of the complaint
based on their own values or the financial amount at stake
Practical Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints
Allow the customer to ‘tell their story’• Intently listen
– Give the customer the opportunity to vent their feelings and explain their story
– Pay attention to tone, emotional level, whether topic shifts from emotional to cognitive
– You may be able to pick up key issues
• Don’t cut them off but don’t let them enter a counter-productive cycle of repeating themselves
Practical Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints
Calm the customer down
• Break into customer’s dialogue to avoid the emotions evoked from a cycle of repeating themselves
• The customer will mirror your tone and pace of voice so reduce your pace of speech and speak evenly
• Aim to get to the real reason for the emotion
Practical Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints
Determine the customer’s mental model• Ask probing questions:
– Why does this concern you?
• Identify where the customer is in the emotion-cognition loop– Help them to see the logic
• The 3 F’s – feel, find, found– I know how you feel…– Have you experienced this before? I have
found…– Is this what you found…?
Emotional reaction
Cognitive reaction
Practical Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints
Ride the loop
• Walk in their shoes’
• Break into the conversation if it begins to become counter-productive
• Encourage a sense of bonding with the customer
Practical Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints
Break the loop• Identify when the customer is listening to the staff
member and is confident that the situation is being taken seriously– Customer will ask questions and conversation will
appear normal and flow easily
• End the loop on a cognitive response highlighting the expectations of the customer– E.g. What do you think company X should have done
in this situation? What would you have done?
Practical Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints
Agree on an outcome
• AIM: the customer is reasonably satisfied and can see the logic or limitations constricting the organisation’s actions
• Enable the customer to participate in finding a solution– Present the customer with a range of appropriate options
• Warning: you may get a satisfactory solution but still lose the customer
• The customer needs to feel valued and that they have added value
Conclusion
All You Do Is Complain – The Problem
• Customers perceive violation of social norms and expectations of what is appropriate behaviour and attitudes of service-providers.
• Once emotions are evoked, customers often resolve to pursue it “through to the bitter end” and expend more effort than what might be rationally justified.
• Extreme physical consequences of the emotional effort
Conclusion
All You Do Is Complain – The Solution:
• Organisations need to ensure that staff are well trained, well informed and resist the temptation to place more importance on higher financial claims for redress. Its not about the money!
• No matter how small the amount at stake, complainants are more satisfied with a response when the outcome is equivalent to what they sought, and less satisfied when the outcome is less than what they sought.
• Money is not a driver of overall satisfaction. What is more important for the consumer is that they obtain what they seek (not always financial redress) in a timely manner by helpful knowledgeable staff. “The sooner the better” is not necessarily true.
Professor Charmine Härtelwww.charminehartel.com
Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Director of the Social and Economic Interface Research Network (SEIRnet), and
Associate Dean (Staff Research Development)Faculty of Business and Economics
Monash University Telephone: 0401999613
Email: [email protected]
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