Service quality: complaints and compliments

Citation

(2003), "Service quality: complaints and compliments", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 7 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/mbe.2003.26707bab.005

Service quality: complaints and compliments

Service quality: complaints and compliments

This is a shortened version of "A content analysis of complaints and compliments" by M. Friman and B. Edvardsson. It was originally published in Managing Service Quality, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 20-6, ISSN 0960-4529

How consumers perceive service quality is in part determined by their satisfaction with different attributes. Examples of attributes are communication, competence, reliability and responsiveness. However, the bulk of this research has focused on how satisfied people are with different attributes without investigating whether they process all these attributes when they experience the service. It has been suggested that some attributes are not processed unless they go wrong, such as technical malfunctioning. Other things are "unexpected pleasures", which are not processed until they appear. However, more empirical evidence is called for to determine whether different service quality attributes are satisfiers or dissatisfiers.

The focus of this article is perceived service quality (PSQ) attributes with (dis)satisfaction effects. Specifically, the primary aim is to examine empirically whether some service quality attributes cause dissatisfaction while others cause satisfaction. In the present study we furthermore investigate whether it is possible to replicate previous findings concerning PSQ attributes in public transport services. The contribution is an empirical grounded analysis of the theoretical construct "satisfiers versus dissatisfiers" in service.

Research propositions

Previous research has revealed that different service quality attributes can be classified into different categories. These studies indicate that some PSQ attributes have a capacity to cause high levels of satisfaction, but do not cause dissatisfaction if the performance is low. Also, some PSQ attributes seems to cause dissatisfaction if the performance is low, but no satisfaction if the performance is high. In addition, some PSQ attributes can cause both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. However more empirical studies are called for to determine whether different PSQ attributes can be classified as satisfiers and dissatisfiers.

Method

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  Complaints – The public transport company in Stockholm, Sweden, invites customers to make complaints by phone, postcard, E-mail, letter or fax. A total of 200[1] such complaints were collected from their database consisting of approximately 40,000 complaints obtained during the last 12 months (an average of approximately 3,300 complaints each month).

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  Compliments – The same public transport company as in the case of complaints also invites customers to make compliments by phone, postcard, E-mail, letter or fax. The number of compliments were few, thus all 69 compliments were collected from their database consisting of compliments obtained during the last 12 months (an average of approximately five to six compliments each month).

Results

Complaints

By far most complaints (49 percent) referred to reliability of the service. Examples include early or late departures. Some complaints in this group also pertain to canceled trips, frequency of service and scheduling of departures.

The second most frequent category, referred to complaints about how customers are treated by staff and whether or not staff are service oriented and take appropriate actions (treatment and action). A few were complaints about unsafe and uncomfortable driving. Some complaints in this group also pertain to interaction with fellow passengers.

A third category, accounting for 17 percent of the complaints, design, mainly referred to complaints about crowding or bus stops (due to design features or limited open hours) Almost equally frequent were complaints about inaccurate or missing information (simplicity). One referred to mode of payment and three to information on the Internet.

A last category included complaints that could not be sorted into the other categories. Three concerned the compensation received when filing a complaint. Two referred to fare structure. Incorrect register by the ticket machine was reported on one occasion.

Compliments

The categories differ slightly, although it is possible to form the same super ordinate groups. New categories include satisfaction with the transport company in general and with their advertising censorship. Treatment and action is the most frequent super ordinate group. Furthermore, reliability and design are frequent categories. Also, 3 percent of the compliments referred to the simplicity of information.

Complaints versus compliments

In order to investigate whether it is possible to differentiate between attributes that are predominantly drivers of compliments and attributes that are predominantly drivers of complaints, their relative frequencies were calculated and compared. There were no exclusive determinants of complaints or compliments with the public transport company. It would appear that most attributes can be a source either of complaints or of compliments.

The most frequently mentioned sources of compliments were related to employee behavior (treatment and action) whereas the most frequently mentioned sources of complaints were reliability of the service. The design of and space available in vehicles (design) seem to enhance an equal amount of complains and compliments.

Discussion

The main purpose of this study was to examine empirically whether perceived service quality attributes can be classified as satisfiers and dissatisfiers. The analyses of the complaints and the compliments produced similar results demonstrating that PSQ are characterized by employee behavior, reliability of service, simplicity of information and design. This result replicates previous findings, suggesting that PSQ attributes in public transport are similar to findings in many other service areas.

Managerial implications and limitations

Finally, we emphasize two managerial implications. Diagnosing attributes causing frequently more complaints than compliments gives managers several possibilities. For instance, more extensive training of employees and/or rewarding of customer-oriented behavior may hopefully increase consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, improving the company's traffic planning (i.e. the core service) would most likely decrease the frequency of complaints even though it would not increase satisfaction.

An important limitation of the present study is that it did not contain measures of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. It is not unquestionable whether compliments and complaints correspond to a (dis)satisfying experience. Therefore, more studies are needed to find out in what way PSQ attributes affect dissatisfaction and satisfaction. Future studies should also focus on different service contexts to understand better general versus context specific service quality attributes and how they affect dissatisfaction and satisfaction.