Types of Complainers and Complaints, Essay Example

Customers differ based on motivation, personality traits, and complaint style. In order to improve customer satisfaction and service delivery, it is important to understand why customers complain about products and services.

The five complainer categories, defined by  Wisocki, Kepner & Glasser (2001) are: the meek customer, the aggressive customer, the high-roller customer, the rip-off customer, and thee chronic complainer. The authors provide a guide to dealing with each customer in order to improve their satisfaction level.

The four types of customer complaints are: instrumental, noninstrumental, ostensive, and reflexive. Instrumental complaints are requiring immediate action and correction. Noninstrumental complaints are simply voiced without any expression of will to amend the service or fix issues. Ostensive complaints are directed at someone outside of the realm of the  complaining person. Reflexive complaints, however, are directed straight at an inner aspect of the complaining customer. (Hoffman & Bateson, 2010,  p. 350).

According to Hoffman & Bateson (2010, p. 354), it is not only important to find out why customers complain, but also to understand why they fail to express their dissatisfaction. The main reasons people would not complain are:

1. they don’t think that anything will change
2. they have no knowledge who is the right person to direct the complaint to
3. they partly blame themselves
4. are not confident enough
5. they might lack knowledge and expertise
6. feel uncomfortable complaining face-to-face.

By creating and maintaining barriers of complaints, companies are at risk of reducing their ability to know their customer. Every feedback from buyers is valuable for a service company, and the management should create a welcoming environment, supportive infrastructure to encourage customers to provide feedback (positive or negative). This way, the company can draw a realistic picture of customer satisfaction and improve service delivery based on feedback.

References

Hoffman, K. & Bateson, John. (2010) Services marketing: concepts, strategies, & cases. Cengage Learning.

Wysocki, Allan,  Kepner, Karl & Glasser, Michelle (2001)  Customer complaints and types of customers. Human Resource Management in Agribusiness. University of Florida.