CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS: MAJOR TYPES OF COMPLAINTS

Customer Complaints

Five Major Types That You Must Know!

Five Solid Reasons Why Customers Complaints Should Be Taken Seriously

Complaints are most important in the growth of any of the organization, specifically there are so many kinds of complaints but generally they are categorized under five major types which are as under:

Five Major Types of Customer Complaints

1.      Performance/Operations related complaints

2.      Customer Touch Point related complaints

3.      Marketing related complaints

4.      Business/Firm/Company service related complaints

5.      Illegitimate/False Complaints

Now let’s talk about each type one by one

Performance/Operations related complaints

Customer complaints related to product/service defects/shortcomings comes under this type, basically all product/service related complaints, issues are due to some operational or performance related malfunction, shortcoming that results in an uneven or defective value creation.

Customer Touch Point related complaints

A customer touch point complaint here specifically means complaints related to front line staff, administration that deals with your customers. These complaints mainly focus on behavior, attitude, performance (making errors in billing, charges, misbehaving, to be intolerant etc) of the front line employees and administration.

Remember in case you are a service provider, customer touch point complaints are far more important for your business than those who deal in tangible items. According to a study customer perception of a brand depends on front line employees/administration behavior, attitude. 

Similarly other studies have confirmed that employees performance can increase not only brand value but also regains/improves customer trust in the brand.

So if you want your customers to take your brand positively, to love your brand, to advocate about it then you need to improve your front line/administration behavior, attitude and performance.

Marketing Related Complaints

Means when customers complaints that your brand didn’t deliver on the commercial promises it made, like the promises (discounts, BOGO offers, sale etc) you made through your promotional, advertising campaigns with your target market.

So in case of any such complaints, you need to check with your marketing department, team and make sure that a promise made is a promise kept. 

Business/Firm/Company Service Related Complaints

Service complaints that implicitly report issues, problems not with your product/service but with your business, firm or company for instance your business doesn’t provide adequate human resource, training, equipment, tools, facilities, financial support etc to one or other department which is resulting in poor business performance that is affecting overall value delivery and thus resulting in customer complaints.

Such complaints aren’t related to any of the complaints types mentioned above but are still genuine, legitimate as they indirectly points to certain flaws, deficiencies, negligence in your business/firm/company standard operating procedures, policies and practices, protocols, overall strategy, tactics so on and so forth and thus demands careful analysis, evaluation of your business big picture.

Illegitimate/False Complaints

Any complaint that doesn’t come under any of these four types is clearly an illegitimate/false complaint and thus needs no attention but still you got to make sure that your customer who is making an illegitimate complaint get it, get that he/she is making an illegitimate complaint and therefore he/she can’t be entertained as he/she desires. 

Remember an illegitimate complaint maker is still your customer thus you need to take utmost care when dealing with such customer after all it costs five to eight times more to acquire new customer than to retain an old one.