I agree with most of the comments re Complaint Management 
Excellence - e.g complaints are an opportunity if taken seriously 
etc.  I find the 26 out of 27 statistic hard to believe - I think it 
is the other way round.   It is clear from Industrial Relations 
research that formal grievance procedures are rarely used, especially 
by individuals (compared to the number of grievances).

It also occured to me that making complaints is also cultural.  The 
French, for example, are said to be much more prepared to complain 
that us Brits.  Perhaps Hofstede's cultural diversity model can help 
us here.

It is also interesting how some companies deal with complaints.  
Recently I bought, amongst other things,  some Pringles from Tesco (3 
for price of 2).  After paying for them I noticed that I had been 
charged for all 3(£1.29 each = £3.77).  I took the receipt to the 
customer service desk.  The assistant searched through some papers, 
attempted to claim that certain flavours were not included,  then 
went to look in the store where the items were on display and then 
gave me all of the £3.77 back.  The assistant went to great lengths 
to explain the company policy on this issue - but I did not get an 
apology.   This left me with 3 packets of Pringles for which a did 
not have to pay for.  Out of interest I decided to repeat this on the 
next day and the same thing happened - but still no apology.  I would 
imagine that many customers would not have even noticed that they 
were being overcharged. It is interesting to note that the strategy 
of refunding all of the money seems to be adopted instead of offering 
an apology  

(p.s. in case anyone is wondering I do not do this sort of 
thing all the time).  

Wes Haydock
[log in to unmask]
Centre for Enterprise and Management
Bolton Business School
Bolton Institute of Higher Education
Deane Road
BL3 5AB
Web Page: http://www.acs.bolton.ac.uk/~wh2 


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