Receiving,Recording, and Responding to Customer Complaints: The Effects of Formalizing Customer Complaint Handling Policies in Retail Firms |
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| Authors: | Nader H Shooshtari Simona Stan Shawn F Clouse |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Management &2. Marketing, College of Business, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana USAnader.shooshtari@mso.umt.edu;4. Marketing, College of Business, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana USA;5. Department of Management Information Systems, College of Business, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, USA |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACTGiven the critical need for retail firms to provide high quality customer service and satisfaction, this article investigates the importance of formalizing customer complaint handling policies and procedures with regard to its relationship to the ways in which retail companies receive, record, and respond to customer complaints. A survey of 184 firms from the retail environment of a midsized community reveals that the existence of such formalized procedures is significantly associated with firm size, better channels of communication with customers, mechanisms of recording customer feedback, and better-trained employees, which have been shown to relate to higher firm performance. |
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| Keywords: | Customer complaint handling customer satisfaction customer service policies |
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