MIDTERM PROJECT IN
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
ANALYSIS ON CUSTOMER COMPLAINS

Submitted to:
Sir Johnny Perlas

By:
Stephanie Luber
Christina Leong

January 19, 2012 There isn’t a fast food restaurant or retail store that hasn’t come across an angry customer. It can become very stressful working with an unhappy customer. The resentment of the customer prevents us from resolving the initial problem. This is a serious issue for businesses that want healthy relationships with their customers. Although you may resent it, customer complaints are healthy for the growth and survival of the business and it's possible to handle them in a productive way.
Handling complaints is never an easy or enjoyable challenge. That said, if management can promote a pro-active approach to dealing with dissatisfied customers then there is every chance such negative situations can be turned into satisfying and memorable encounters for the customer. That’s the same customer that will tell all of their friends about you if you don’t handle their complaint appropriately. A complaining customer is your most important customer, they may be complaining because service levels are deteriorating, because the product no longer performs to their expectations, or even because they have heard that one of your competitors are doing things better than you. So, what happens when a complaint is not handled well, or even worse, the customer doesn’t even bother complaining in the first place? Customers go elsewhere: Even the best performing Fastfood or companies lose between 10 and 30% of their customer base each year; imagine what that figure could be if a complaining customer is simply passed between departments? They talk to others about you: On average, a dissatisfied customer tells 10-15 people of their negative experience, each of whom who then tells their friends, and so on.