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Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 2
Major Findings ............................................................................................................................. 2
Problem Definition .......................................................................................................................... 3
Background of the problem .................................................................................................... 3
Problem Definition ..................................................................................................................... 3
Approach to the Problem .............................................................................................................. 4
Objective / Theoretical Framework .................................................................................... 4
Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 4
Hypotheses .................................................................................................................................... 5
Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 5
Data collection from secondary sources & literature review .................................... 6
Data collection from primary sources................................................................................. 7
Sampling techniques .................................................................................................................. 8
Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Hypothesis 1.................................................................................................................................. 8
Hypothesis 2.................................................................................................................................. 9
Recommendations ........................................................................................................................ 10
Limitations & future Scope of Marketing Research ......................................................... 11
Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 12
Questionnaire floated ............................................................................................................. 12
References................................................................................................................................... 13

Executive Summary
The area of Consumer Complaint Management is one that has been in the dark
for quite some time. With the rise in product diversification and increasing
concentration on the customer experience this area is garnering traction and
companies are focusing a lot of their energy in improving customer satisfaction
through better complaint addressing systems.
Consumers have been seen to show various types of behavior when they
complaint. This pattern has to be studied and properly documented so as to help
companies better the system. Our research is one small step to this large ocean
wherein we try to address basic problems like
a. Are consumers just worried about the process or do they even look into
how they are treated emotionally?
b. Are customers concentrated on the goal and are they strategic in their
feedback?
c. Defining the relations between customer loyalty and problem resolution?
d. Document the time difference between a customer facing a problem and
registering it as a complaint?
e. Is there a difference between the choices of both genders?
By this research our main aim is to better streamline the process and thus
provide an initiation point for further research. By going ahead with the above
research what we plan to do is to understand the initiation of the complaint
process, the factors that influence the process, choices during the process that
may be specific to a gender and establish a relationship between customer
loyalty and problem resolution.

Major Findings
The findings from our research helped us in better understanding of the
complaint process and helped us to establish direct relations. Some of the major
findings are stated as below
1. There is a difference in how males and females look at the complaint
registration service.
2. While males are more process oriented, females pay more
concentration on experience. Females appreciate when the process is
a bit emotionally driven.
3. Customers are all goal oriented but when it comes to being strategic in
giving feedback, males were found to show strong strategic character.
4. There is not a completely direct relation between customer loyalty
and complaint resolution. The complaint resolution experience even

plays a part here. If the process to get the problem resolved is

cumbersome, customers are shown to be less loyal.
5. Most customers do not register a complaint as soon as they face a
problem. Its only when it gets a lot intrusive do they register the
complaint. Females were found to be more late in registering the
complaint.

Problem Definition
Background of the problem
Product diversification has become the norm of today and with
companies trying to cater to the varied needs of the consumers there has
even a subsequent rise in the complexity of the products. This complexity
and mind bending technology has related in more problems with
products and thus a cumulative result in complaints.
The company service centers have always been seen in negative light
when it comes to problem resolution. Some of the times it was because of
denial of service or poor service quality but to believe that this was the
case in general was a bit difficult. We did a secondary research to find out
the top causes for customer complaints and they are enumerated as
below
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Bad Quality of product

Failure of product
Failure in meeting the expectations
Unfulfilled purpose of purchase
Frequent defects in product

These are some of the top reasons for customer complaints and it would
be hard to believe that service centers mostly turn down all customers.
Sure there would be exceptions where service centers behavior is awry,
we start looking for the reasons as to why consumers are always irritated
with the service centers and is there something very glaring the
companies are missing.

Problem Definition
Marketing Research Problem
Investigate gender differences regarding determinants that are
relevant
to complaint management
Management Decision Problem
How should companies handle complaints from male and female
customers differently

Approach to the Problem

Objective / Theoretical Framework

We were interested in finding out how should companies handle complaint from
male and female customers differently.
We referred research paper by Prof. Eva Koban which talks about different
expectations by male and female customers after lodging a complaint.

Research Questions
While design Hypothesis we kept several basic factors in mind as mentioned in
the research paper. We were interested in knowing different expectations by
male
and females hence, we started from ground level i.e
Pre-complaint period
why do they lodge a complaint, major issue due to which they lodge a complaint,
While complainingHow much minutes does it take to lodge a complaint, there preferred mode of
lodging a complaint and so on..
After the complaint has been lodgedTheir expectations from the company. How many days do they think is the
optimal time period for complaint resolution and so on..

Hypotheses
Continuing on our research questions, we formulated several Hypothesis, to test
whether it is true or not.
On lines of our Hypothesis we further formulated our questionnaire.
Hypothesis 1
Female should not be dealt with a
degree of emotional sensitively as
they focus more on process

Hypothesis 2
Male do not follow a goal oriented
solution and are not strategic in
their feedback

Hypothesis 3
Customer loyalty is not affected
when problem gets resolved

Hypothesis 4
Customers immediately call the
customer care when faced with a
problem

Research Design
a) Type of research design

We followed both exploratory and conclusive research designs.

Exploratory research design was done to gain insights into, and understanding
of the problem. This helps us in defining the problem more precisely, identify
relevant courses of action, and gain additional insights before an approach can
be developed.
Conclusive research designs helped us in testing specific hypothesis and examine
relationships. This also helped us in making this assignment a formal and wellstructured research project.

Data collection from secondary sources & literature review

Few of the major points that we concluded What level of customer service to provide?
Offering over-quality which exceeds customer expectation may increase cost.
Over-quality may give the impression that a product or service is overpriced,
even if this is not so
Delivering solution
Customers are more likely to perceive outcomes such as monetary funds,
credits, and so on, as fair if they are treated fairly and respectfully in interactions
with managers and employees, but when procedural justice is low, outcomes are
likely to be seen as unfair. Most loyal customers react most negatively when
treated unfairly

Who is at fault ?
Companies must be willing to give customers the benefit of the doubt. The
starting point must be that customers are honest and claims legitimate. Starting
by thinking that the customer is dishonest will distance the company from the
customer
Loyal customers Vs new customers
Customers with lower levels of loyalty are less interested in the fairness of
procedures and interpersonal treatment that form the basis for a longer-term
relationship, particularly after experiencing a service failure early in the
exchange. Those less loyal are more likely to be concerned with a fair economic
and tangible transaction
Degree of autonomy with service provider
Service personnel should have the autonomy to help customers in real time,
including the authority to offer compensation without management interference.
Managers should investigate fairness for their specific industry
Reaping the loyalty
The repurchase benefit of complaint management is achieved when previously
dissatisfied customers, who otherwise would have migrated, remain loyal to the
company as a result of complaint management activities

Data collection from primary sources

We tried are level best to gather data from as many sources as possible.
1) We made google form and floated it all our friends via social media like
Facebook, Whatsapp and E-mail
2) We printed out copies of the form, and approached random people on the
street to ask about their experience
We tried to gather it from as many different sections of the society as possible
e) Scaling techniques -non-comparative Likert scale was used
f) Questionnaire development & pretesting
Our questionnaire had 10 questions, through which we wanted to check
customers experience before lodging a complaint, during the time he/ she lodges
a complaint, after he / she lodges a complaint.

We asked questions related to customers loyalty towards a specific brand, what

are his / her expectations from the brand after the complaint, his/ her preferred
mode of lodging a complaint.

Sampling techniques

We used Convenience Sampling under Non-probability Sampling Technique.

For floating online google form, we reached to our friends and other people to
whom it was convenient for us to approach.
For offline printed forms, we approached people on the nearby street, as it was
convenient for us to approach them.
Majority of our respondents had age between 18-28 years, with almost an equal
male : female ratio. Majority of them belonged to the upper class, and were
educated from a premier institute.

Data Analysis
Hypothesis 1:
Customers should not be dealt with a degree of emotional sensitively as they
focus more on process.

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics

Sensitivity
Valid N
(list wise)

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

75
75

1.75

4.50

3.3933

Standard
Deviation
.66166

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics

Sensitivity
Valid N
(list wise)

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

33
33

1.75

4.50

3.31182

Standard
Deviation
.71336

A right tail z-test with 95% confidence interval gave us that:

Z-value
One-tailed p-value

-0.6538
0.7434

The two samples are not significantly different which can lead to the conclusion
that null hypothesis can be rejected for the said hypothesis.
Hence, it can be said that, Customers, especially females should be dealt with a
degree of emotional sensitively as they focus not only on process

Hypothesis 2:
Customers do not follow a goal oriented solution and are not strategic in their
feedback
Table 3: Descriptive Statistics

Sensitivity
Valid N
(list wise)

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

75
75

1.00

5.00

3.1000

Standard
Deviation
.99322

Table 4: Descriptive Statistics

Sensitivity
Valid N
(list wise)

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

42
42

1.00

5.00

3.0833

A right tail z-test with 95% confidence interval gave us that:

Standard
Deviation
1.10386

Z-value
One-tailed p-value

-0.109
0.5434

The two samples are not significantly different which can lead to the conclusion
that null hypothesis can be rejected for the said hypothesis.
Hence, it can be said that, Customers, especially males do follow a goal oriented
solution and are strategic in their feedback

Recommendations
1. Synthesizing the consumer and organizational views of complaint behavior
There are lot of discrepancies when it come to complaint processing on
company and consumers end. This leads to miscommunication. In order to
remove the gap, the consumers feedback is also needed to be taken into
account while formulating the complaint processing process.
2. Focusing on reasons why consumers dont voice their complaints
It is found that all the complaints are not reported and because of which
company has difficulties evaluating the performance of the product. The
reasons can vary as to why the complaints are not reported but the
smoothness of the process of registering a complaint can solve this problem
to a large extent.
3. Increase likelihood that consumers directly voice their complaints
Creation of a lot of steps in between company and consumer can result in
customer breaking the chain before reaching the company and lodging the
complaint finally. Hence, minimum steps should be present if and when
consumer decides to lodge a complaint.
4. Analyze customer characteristics with respect to the market.
An FMCG customer will have different queries for the product that a
consumer with queries about FMCD product. The complications about the
product also varies from industry to industry. The complaint registering
process should be tailor made as per the demand of the product.
5. Site monitoring in complaint handling policy

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Limitations & future Scope of Marketing Research

1. Test unit not representative of entire population
Primary research was conducted on a restricted demographical area. It
doesnt contain enough diversity. An expanded sample population can be
explored which has multiple sub sections and then the result can be
deduced again. It might be probable that results can be varied from the
already conducted research.
2. A more comprehensive survey form can be prepared
The survey didnt address all the issues and there is significant scope of
procuring more data from the customers which can used in the research
and mathematical modelling to fine tune the result.
3. The result might not be indicative of every individual of the sample
The result comprises more of general pattern and has omitted extremities
and exceptions. This was done with the motive that meaningful
conclusions can be obtained.
4. Individual might have different reaction pattern with respect to different
situations
As mentioned, there are different queries in the mind of a consumer for
different products. It can be assumed that the result of the primary
research can be obtained differently if the user perceives the the feedback
in terms of product belonging to different category.

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Appendix
Questionnaire floated

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References
Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. (2008) Service-dominant logic: Continuing the
evolution. Journal of the Academy Of Marketing Science 36 (1): 110.
Andreassen, T.W. (2000) Antecedents to satisfaction with service
recovery. European Journal of Marketing34(1/2): 156175.
de Ruyter, K. and Wetzels, M. (2000) Customer equity considerations in
service recovery: A cross-industry perspective. International Journal of
Service Industry Management 11 (1): 91108.
Miller, M. and Robbins, T. (2004) Considering customer loyalty in
developing service recovery strategies. Journal of Business
Strategies 21 (2): 95109.

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