Communicating Consumer Complaints: Message Content and its Perceived Effectiveness

Abstract

Consumers sometimes experience discontent when they interact with companies and may complain to communicate their dissatisfaction. To date, most researchers have focused on what organizations do to remedy consumer dissatisfaction without examining the content of the complaint messages. This is regrettable considering the degree to which organizations comply with complaints may be a function of what consumers say. Using Garner's (2009) typology of organizational influence and dissent as a theoretical guide, we created a measure of consumer complaining to determine what people say when they complain to companies and what messages they perceive to be effective in gaining compliance.

Keywords:

• Communication
• Complain
• Consumer
• Effective
• Organization

Notes

Note. Items were adapted from Garner if there were not enough examples in the solicited complaints. These include items in inspiration (appealing to morals), humor, and repetition.

Note: * = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01 (two-tailed), N = 357.

Note. Credibility was kept because its loading approached 0.50 and did not have a secondary loading above 0.17 (e.g., Goodboy, 2011). Correlations (two-tailed) between the variables are: Hostile – Direct (r = 0.53), Hostile – Informative (r = 0.38), Hostile – Indirect (r = 0.32), Direct – Informative (r = 0.24), Direct – Indirect (r = 0.23), Informative – Indirect (r = .16). All correlations are significant at p < 0.01.

Note. * = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01.

Note: t1 = versus test value of 1, t2 = versus test value of 2. * = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01 (two tailed). Items in bold (t1) represent factors participants report using less frequently than a theoretical mean of 1. Items in bold (t2) represent factors participants report using more frequently than a theoretical mean of 2. Additionally, # and % indicate the quantity and percentage of responses with means at or above 3 (representing a response of “mostly similar to what I said”).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

San Bolkan

San Bolkan (Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin, 2007) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

Darrin J. Griffin

Darrin J. Griffin (Ph.D., State University of New York, Buffalo, 2014) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

Alan K. Goodboy

Alan K. Goodboy (Ph.D., West Virginia University, 2007) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University.