Consumers' Complaint Behaviour. Taxonomy, Typology and Determinants

Consumers’ complaint behaviour. Taxonomy, typology and determinants: Towards a unified ontology Received (in revised form): 16th August, 2003 Dominique Crie´ is Professor of marketing at the University of Sciences and Technologies of Lille, in the Business Administration Department (IAE). He manages the postgraduate degree course: statistical specialisation for marketing databases. He is also a marketing consultant and statistician, member of the Association Franç aise de Marketing and of the Socie´te´Franç aise de Statistiques. His research focuses on the customer relationship, particularly in relation to satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Abstract Complaint behaviour is a set of consumer dissatisfaction responses. It is an explicit expression of dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction is only one determinant of this behaviour. Complaint behaviour can be analysed as various types of response but also as a process. This paper proposes an integrated framework of the various theories of complaint behaviour leading toward a unified ontology and to interpreting it from a new perspective. INTRODUCTION ‘complainers’ and ‘non-complainers’, this This paper reviews a concept still paper tries to track down the main relatively rarely considered by companies: dimensions of the CCB taxonomy consumer complaint behaviour. Within throughastructuralisationofits the framework of the relationship determinants within a diachronic paradigm, complaint behaviour is a approach — the objective being to powerful signal which companies should propose a clarified conceptual and take into account. On the one hand, it theoretical framework to integrate the gives an organisation a last chance to large variety of works on the subject. retain the customer, if the organisation The conclusion highlights a synthesis of reacts appropriately, on the other hand it this conceptual structure with regard to a is a legitimate and ethical act toward the unified ontology. consumer. Generally, but not exclusively, complaint behaviour is one of the A TAXONOMY OF THE TYPES OF responses to perceived dissatisfaction in RESPONSE TO DISSATISFACTION the post-purchase phase. In the first A dissatisfied consumer may adopt several Dominique Crie´ section of the paper, a taxonomy of typesofresponse,classificationofwhich IAE de Lille, 104, Avenue du Peuple response styles used by dissatisfied may be delicate. The taxonomy of Belge, 59 043 Lille Ce´dex, consumers is proposed. Then consumer responses first requires a distinction France. complaint behaviour (CCB) is defined between the notions of response and of Tel: ϩ33 (0)3 20 12 34 64; Fax: ϩ33 (0)3 20 12 34 48; and situated with regard to these various action to be established. Indeed, the term E-mail: [email protected] types of response. Finally, after clustering ‘action’ implies a very specific behaviour, 60 Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management Vol. 11, 1, 60–79 ᭧ Henry Stewart Publications 1741–2447 (2003) Consumers’ complaint behaviour Table 1: A taxonomy of the types of response to dissatisfaction Towards enitity Public Private Response type (Sellers, manufacturers, official organisations, (Family, friends, associations, justice) relations) Behavioural Complaint Word of mouth Legal action Boycott/leaving Return of the item Request for repair Non-behavioural No action, with or without modification of the attitude Forget or forgive while the term ‘response’ contains several Themoreexpensiveandcomplexthe modalities which are not exclusively product, the more consumers are behavioural, notably change of attitude inclined to initiate public action, or inactivity. This distinction establishes a however the greater likelihood is that first dimension. they will stay inactive or choose private The second is represented by the action.2–4 entities towards which responses are The authors of the firststreamof directed: the public one includes sellers, literature are numerous, but Hirschman’s manufacturers and consumer associations work remains standard in the or legal action; the private one includes conceptualisation of responses to family, friends or relatives. dissatisfaction through the model ‘Exit, Finally, responses show different Voic e and Loy alty ’.Exitisanactiveand intensities according to the two previous destructive response to dissatisfaction, dimensions. Responses may vary from exhibited by a break of the relationship inactivity to legal action — either simply with the object (brand, product, retailer, to express dissatisfaction or to obtain supplier...). The verbal response (Voice) repair or compensation (Table 1). is a constructive response with an The heterogeneity of these various expectationofchangeinanorganisation’s response types may be partially explained practices, policies and responses; it is by the cause and intensity of characterised by complaints towards dissatisfaction and by the nature and friends, consumer associations and importance of the product or service of relevant organisations. The third type of concern. On the other hand, consumers response (Loyalty) has two aspects, may mix or connect several response constructive and passive, the individual types for the same dissatisfaction. This hoping that things will evolve in a aspect is relatively neglected by the positive way. For Brown and Swartz,5 it literature, although Hirschman1 notes that is especially a feeling of impotence that is complaint and exit are not two the cause of this behavioural loyalty. symmetric elements: when a customer ‘The neglect of the incident and the leaves the company, he/she loses ‘the inherent inactivity’ can, however, be opportunity’ to use their voice, while if considered as evidence for loyalty. he/she uses the complaint first, he/she is Research designed to explain the always free to leave later if the complaint various types of response to dissatisfaction does not succeed. So exit can be a is limited. Scales have been created for substitute for and complement to a this purpose by Day et al.6 but they are complaint. without methodological and ᭧ Henry Stewart Publications 1741-2447 (2003) Vol. 11, 1, 60–79 Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management 61 Crie´ psychometric validation. Only Bearden We rne rfe l t 14 consider that the complaint and Teel7 have investigated the various is ‘an attempt of the customer to change types of response using a Guttman scale. an unsatisfactory situation’. Finally, The data are collected from five items of Singh15 suggests that this behaviour, increasing intensity: (1) family and friends activated at an emotional or sentimental warning, (2) return of the item and/or level by a perceived dissatisfaction, is part complaint, (3) contact with the of the more general framework of manufacturer, (4) contact with consumer responses to dissatisfaction which consists associations or official organisations and of two dimensions (see also Day and (5) legal action, notably when the Landon16). The first dimension, grounded customer does not obtain satisfaction completely or in part in actions initiated with the seller.8 Empirically validated, by the consumer (conveying expression this scale does not, however, take into of his/her dissatisfaction not only to the account the non-behavioural responses seller, but also to third parties, friends or highlighted by previous research, and a relations17,18), is behavioural but does not single item relates to private action.9 Of necessarily entail action towards the a rather formative nature, every item company; it is essentially within this contributes in its own way to the dimension that CCB should be development of the intensity of the considered. The second dimension refers responses. Day10 confirms the relevance to absence of action by the consumer, of the use of such a scale. for example when he/she forgets a The main aim of this taxonomy is to generative episode of dissatisfaction.19,20 clarify the various responses a dissatisfied In this way, CCB must, rather, be consumer could use, in order to track conceived as a process, ie its final down more precisely those which the manifestation does not directly depend company can observe directly. on its initiating factors but on evaluation of the situation by the consumer and of its evolution over time. DEFINING CONSUMER COMPLAINT So, CCB really constitutes a subset of BEHAVIOUR all possible responses to perceived Among the various types of response to dissatisfaction around a purchase episode, dissatisfaction, some of them more during consumption or during possession direcly concern CCB. The first of the good (or service). In fact, the conceptual base of this phenomenon notion of ‘complaint behaviour’ includes concerning post-purchase was stated at a more general terminology which also the end of the 1970s.11 Jacoby and involves the notions of protest, Jaccard12 define it as ‘an action begun by communication (word of mouth) or the individual who entails a recommendation to third parties21 and communication of something negative to even the notion of boycott. This notion a product (service), either towards the is conceptually inserted in a set of company or towards a third entity’.For explicit demonstrations, generally towards Day et al.,13 it is the consequence ‘of a the seller, of a consumer’s dissatisfaction. given act of consumption, following It seems then that it is necessary to which the consumer is confronted with include in the definition of CCB a set of an experience generating a high responses, heterogeneous in their targets dissatisfaction, of sufficientimpactsothat — the study of this behaviour not

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