How organisations can learn from complaints

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -In the literature on complaint management the importance is acknowledged of learning from complaints. Still, the concept of organisational learning has not yet been embedded in the field of complaint management. Therefore, this paper aims to adjust a general model for organisational learning to the concept of complaint management in order to make it operational for this field. Design/methodology/approach -The notion of organisational learning in combination with complaint management is modelled as a system. This system enabled us to analyse the practices of handling and analysing complaints within six Dutch service organisations and to assess the potential of these organisations for organisational learning. Findings -The results of the paper categorise a variety of complaint management practices along two elements of organisational learning: triggers and modes of learning (i.e. informational learning or interactive learning). Research limitations/implications -Further research should include the applicability of the learning model to different sectors or organisations. Practical implications -This collection of practices can be used as a managerial guideline for improving the processes of learning from complaints. Originality/value -This paper contributes to embedding the concept of organisational learning in the field of complaint management.

Analysing the preferred characteristics of frontline employees dealing with customer complaints

“…Companies should regard customer complaints as a valuable source of important market intelligence which enables them to not only correct the root cause of the problem but to improve their service more generally (Vos et al, 2008). Using Kano questionnaires helps managers find out which frontline employee attributes are basic factors that their customers take for granted, performance factors for which the relationship between attribute performance and (dis-)satisfaction is linear, and excitement factors that can truly delight their customers.…”

A conceptual model for interactivity, complaint and expectation for CRM

“…Complaints may lead to defections in a sense that a customer may not have any intention to patronize that company anymore [4]. Some complaints will lead only to dissatisfaction in which company can remedy those problems in order to retain the customer [4,10]. Moreover, company can gain extra retention due to the right accomplishment.…”

“…Moreover, company can gain extra retention due to the right accomplishment. In addition, expectation may have some relationship with extra retention [4,10].…”

“…The advent of updated complaint could be a starting point for analysis and improvement. From the learning perspective, it could often be a great source of learning for a company to reach a favorable circumstance [10]. Appreciating and giving some credit to complaints in this routine enhances company's long-run relationships with their customers.…”

“…Moreover, it is clarified that customer may select not to complain but rather to patronize competitors. Similarly, customers who express their dissatisfaction using a complaint choose to leave or continue to support their own opinions [10] . Defection can be defined as customers do not have a willingness to use a product or service.…”