The Routledge Handbook of Consumer Behaviour in Hospitality and Tourism by Dixit Saurabh Kumar;

Author:Dixit, Saurabh Kumar;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

23

Customer Complaint Behaviour

Poh Theng, Loo

Customer complaint behaviour (CCB) and its importance

There are many studies that have defined customer complaint behaviour (CCB) over the past few decades (Sharma et al. 2010). The earliest definition of CCB was introduced by Jacoby and Jaccard (1981), as being the action taken by an individual to communicate negative comments about a product or service towards a company or a third-party organizational entity. Later, Singh (1988) proposed CCB as behavioural (public or private action) and non-behavioural responses (no action) triggered by perceived dissatisfaction with a purchase and consumption experience. The dissatisfaction was caused by the negative disconfirmation of purchase expectations that led to complaint behaviour (Keng et al. 1995). Overall, CCB can be defined as behavioural and non-behavioural actions taken by a dissatisfied customer for his or her below-expected purchase or consumption experience.

Understanding CCB is critical for the services industry, including the hospitality and tourism industry. This is especially so as Goodman (1999) reveals that it is five times more expensive to win a new customer than to keep a current customer. Understanding CCB can enable industry practitioners to be aware of their areas for improvement, such as effective complaint remedies and service recovery to restore customer satisfaction and customer loyalty; these are, undoubtedly, imperative. Previous studies have proved that customer satisfaction in complaint remedies affects customer re-patronage intentions (Conlon and Murray 1996; Davidow 2000; Susskind 2005). Furthermore, a better understanding of CCB can help hospitality and tourism organizations to be proactive in handling complaints (Wildes and Seo 2001). Services organizations should view understanding CCB as an opportunity to strengthen relationships with customers (Blodgett et al. 1995; Kim and Boo 2011) and to learn about problems in order to provide better-quality products and services (Ngai et al. 2007). By doing so, services organizations in hospitality and tourism can develop effective customer complaint management systems for maximization of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and, ultimately, profits. The importance of understanding CCB is further supported by a study of Blodgett et al. (1995) which revealed that 77% of all customers who had a bad experience did not complain but they engaged in negative word-of-mouth (WOM). However, only 48% of the complaining customers engaged in negative WOM before seeking redress. According to past statistics, on average, 50% of the customers tend to complain about a problem to a front-line employee but only 1–5% of customers will launch their complaints to a manager or headquarters (Goodman 1999). These statistics show the importance of understanding CCB by the organizations and service employees so that they are able to respond and handle customer complaints effectively.

Table 23.1 Types of CCB responses

Hirschman (1970) Exit is an active and destructive response to dissatisfaction which is related to the break of relationship with the service provider.

Voice is a verbal and constructive response with an expectation of change in the organization’s practices, policies and responses which is usually addressed with friends and other organizations.

Loyalty has two aspects which are constructive and passive, whereby customers hope that things will

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