Coordinate implementation of customer service strategies Lecture 7 Payman Shafiee

Employees Willingness to Report Service Complaints failures are pervasive in service encounters Organizations need to engage in dissatisfaction management and service recovery processes in order to achieve successful service provision frontline workers must initiate or undertake various actions in order to mitigate service failures and restore customer satisfaction This partly relies on service workers willingness to report service complaints (WRC) Slides by Payman Shafiee

Employees Willingness to Report Service Complaints A key factor in service success is the handling of customer complaints, which is essential for two related reasons: recovery from a specific or immediate service failure that caused a customer to complain Identification of organizational-level work processes and individual worker practices to improve future service quality and reduce the likelihood of further complaints (Homburg and Fürst 2005) Slides by Payman Shafiee

Unofficial Complaints Scenario overlooked: most of the literature pertaining to complaint handling and to learning from complaints seems to define complaints as dichotomies, that is, the customer either did or did not complain formally, ignoring a third and apparently frequent case that informs the present study, where the customer complains informally. Slides by Payman Shafiee

Unofficial complaints: The depth of the issue On average, across industries, of those who had reason for complaint, only about 1% to 5% complained to management or headquarters; about 45% complained to frontline workers or branch representatives, though such messages seldom reach top management; and 50% or so who encountered a problem never complained at all.1 1 Findings by Technical Assistance Research Programs (Goodman 1999) Slides by Payman Shafiee

Unofficial complaints: The depth of the issue 1. how customers present complaints or express dissatisfaction 2. whether information in this regard was reported or shared by the worker with management, and if so, how and why Slides by Payman Shafiee

1.how customers present complaints or express dissatisfaction Four general themes in terms of customers `behavioral characteristics : 1. content of verbalization i.e. threatening to leave the service provider, or demanding to talk with a supervisor 2. expressive style and emotional content i.e. use of foul language, threats, raising ones voice, or strained tone of voice 3. body language i.e. hand waving, moving close to the worker, or facial expressions of anger 4. behavioral style i.e. Repeating sentences, general insistence, escalation of behavior, Slides by Payman Shafiee

2.whether information was reported or shared by the worker with management 1. Routine reporting: 21% of respondents described submitting formal reports about customer 2. Optional reporting: 16% described self-initiated reporting to management 3. Informal sharing: 37% described indirect reporting or sharing, namely, the employee approached management in order to obtain help or advice 4. Avoidance: In 26% of the incidents, no indication was given that any information was passed to management, 7% of the respondents also described sharing information with co-workers or even with subordinates; learn from the case at hand. Slides by Payman Shafiee

Willingness to Report Complaints and Correlates of Service Discretion Each time a service problem occurs, service workers must use their discretion regarding whether or not to report or consult. the quantitative relationship of WRC with three correlates: 1. Service workers OCB (Organizational citizenship behavior) 2. Workers perceptions of the service climate, 3. Workers perceived empowerment Slides by Payman Shafiee

Willingness to Report Complaints and Correlates of Service Discretion 1. OCB is defined as behavior intended to provide help and assistance that is outside an individuals work role, not directly rewarded and conducive to effective organizational functioning 2. Service climate is defined as employees shared perceptions of the importance of service in the organization. 1. Studies of service climate have found that employees in organizations with a high service climate provide better service, which in turn affects both customers perceptions of service (Salanova, Agut, and Peiro 2005; Schneider et al. 2005; Schneider, White, and Paul 1998; Tsai 2001) and organizational financial performance (Borucki and Burke 1999). Slides by Payman Shafiee

Willingness to Report Complaints and Correlates of Service Discretion 3. Empowerment involves employee freedom and discretion. Empowerment in organizations as having four managerial components: sharing information about organizational performance; basing rewards on that performance; developing knowledge and skills that enable employees to contribute to organizational performance; and giving employees power to make decisions that influence organizational direction and performance.1 1.Bowen and Lawler (1992) Slides by Payman Shafiee

Willingness to Report Complaints The result of an study shows some employees are more willing to report service related complaints than others, and the variability in this regard is related to OCB, to perception of service climate, and to employees level of empowerment. Slides by Payman Shafiee

Willingness to Report Complaints The present findings suggest that frontline workers need to weigh and resolve tensions between multiple pieces of information, such as the characteristics of the customer and the complaint itself, the motivations or emotions of the customer and the employee The Characteristics and prior behaviors of the direct supervisor or line manager the importance of being perceived as a team player the extent to which resolving service failures is a real priority for the organization in their view. Slides by Payman Shafiee

Managerial Implications Management training. Managers should understand and value the importance of information contained in informal complaints and expressions of dissatisfaction that customers present directly to frontline workers. Managers should be encouraged to create communication lines and mechanisms for obtaining information about informal complaints, learn how to analyze this information, and act to improve service based on such data. Slides by Payman Shafiee

Managerial Implications Organizational development tools. Measurement of WRC, and feedback about WRC scores to frontline workers. That is, WRC can be an organizational level variable, and organizations can develop the willingness of their employees to report complaints. Data management. Firms build databases documenting relationships with customers. In a similar vein, documenting data about informal complaints may contribute to the quality of the organization-customers relationship. Slides by Payman Shafiee

Managerial Implications Capturing hidden wisdom. the majority of aggrieved clients present legitimate complaints only informally, that is, orally to frontline workers. these informal complaints, which constitute the majority of complaints, undergo further filtering by frontline employees. the very act of filtering damages both the quantity and quality of the information available to the organization about client complaints. Thus, organizations should not assume that enhanced training for workers regarding reporting will solve the problem Slides by Payman Shafiee