An investigation into whether complaining can cause increased consumer satisfaction

Prashanth U.Nyer
Journal Of Consumer Marketing, Vol.17, No.1 2000

Even though in general people think in the opposite way, consumer complaints are very useful and important for customer-initiated markets, especially for the sectors giving direct service to customers. Consumer complaints provide the related information to the marketers to identify the sources causing dissatisfaction to customers and give them the opportunity to take appropriate responses about the complaints, thus making the customers less dissatisfied in the future and preventing them fro m switching. This can be interpreted as the indirect benefit of complaining.
There are also direct benefits of complaining. By complaining, dissatified consumers can vent the negative emotions and reduce dissonance, thus feeling better about the source of dissatisfaction after they express their dissatisfaction. It is mostly the desire to vent frustration and to obtain emotional release for complaining. But in short-term, vending may cause increase in negative emotions,which dissipates after a few days.
Nyer studied in this article whether consumer complainings by themselves cause increased satisfaction allowing dissatified consumers a chance to vent their anger and frustration.
To measure the satisfaction and product evaluation, 772 trial members(subjects) of a newly opened fitness center who responded to the offer of a free one-day trial membership were given at the end of the one-day trial a questionnaire to complete, which included the measures of satisfaction,product evaluation and also the manipulation of complaining. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups (complaning and non-complaning). The last item in the questionnaire for the former group was a request for any complaints that the trial member may have regarding the experience at the fitness center. Subjects in the latter group were provided with a filler task. Depending on their initial satisfaction with the fitness center, subjects were assigned to three groups;
- low initial satisfaction
- moderate initial satisfaction
- high initial satisfaction
To see the beneficial effects of complaining on satisfaction, the trial members were called after one-week from the time of complaining, so that the short-term increase in dissatisfaction would be dissipated. Referring to the data obtained and analysis of the data in this measurement, it is found and interpreted as;
- Dissatisfied consumers who complain experience greater increase in satisfaction and product evaluation when compared to the dissatisfied consumers who do not complain, after a period of one-week.
- Initially low satisfied complaining consumers have the greatest complaining induced increases in satisfaction and product evaluation.
- The complaining induced increases in satisfaction and product evaluation are influenced by the intensity of complaining.
- Consumers who are encouraged to complain are more likely to engage in
purchasing power than those who are not explicitly asked to express their feelings and opinions.

Regarding to the above findings and summing up, encouraging dissatisfied consumers to express their feeling and opinions may cause increased level of satisfaction and product evaluation. This increase is seen obviously in most dissatisfied complaining customers and to a lesser increase for customers who are moderately dissatisfied. The intensity of complaning influences the increase in satisfaction and product evalution in a positive manner. The more the intensely a customer complains, the greater the increases in satisfaction and product evaluation. Complaining also has an effect on purchasing behaviour of customers, which leads them to purchase more than the less complaining customers.


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