Survey and Research Data

A 2003 benchmarking study team from 10 organisations at a symposium in Canada, investigated effective complaint management to identify important practices for customer retention (Anonymous, 2003). Best practices were listed as:

• Have success in service recovery;

• Make improvements based on complaint information;

• Understand the value of customers and have a complaint-friendly philosophy and culture;

• Have a process in place for action planning based on complaints;

• Have an effective escalation process;

• Recognise complaints from multiple access channels;

• Handle verbatim complaints efficiently;

• Have effective representative training for listening to customers and collecting complaints;

• Influence other departments to take action on complaints;

• Have a customer feedback system based on complaints

Research shown in the March 1995 Managing Best Practice Survey involving 491 personnel and human resources managers, found that by far the most frequent complaints were on quality (reported by 56% of companies) and late delivery (52% of companies).

In a 1995 US study of the reasons why customers leave their suppliers, the following findings were made:

The vast majority indicated no particular reason. This suggests that the suppliers had not been proactive in retaining them.

The 2000 National Complaints Culture Survey in the UK found that the number of people who complain all or most of the time has increased to 44%. People who don't complain cited their reasons as 'lack of time' and 'too much trouble'. However, when they do complain they want a fast initial response and a very fast resolution. They also desire to deal with a person rather than any form of electronic machine, with 73% preferring the personal touch, either by phone or face-to-face.

A benchmarking survey by Swallow Information Systems of 28 organisations in the business-to-consumer marketplace found that while 93% of the organisations recorded customer data, only a third used their customers` opinions to improve organisational practices. In addition, while 89% used the Internet as a prime method for contacting customers, most had no procedure for resolving online complaints and enquiries. At least one quarter of these organisations have no dedicated customer service policy at all.