Complain Much?: Effects of Consumer Complaints On Businesses

Ever expressed dissatisfaction at a less than noteworthy gift item you bought for yourself? At a service rendered unto thee? Or are you a responsible business owner who doesn’t mind hearing about consumer complaints, as long as they can pinpoint how you can improve your products and services?  You could say yes to two or all of these situations. After all, we’re well within our rights as consumers to complain about something that irks us about the items we buy or the services we want doing – regardless of whether we’re business owners or not. But what are the effects of our consumer complaints to the businesses we’ve supported? What is their impact? Let’s find out.

The Positives

• They help businesses improve themselves.

Complaints highlight key areas where a company’s products or services need improvement. They can also make a company or business gain insights about their customers’ perceptions of them, can help a company or business identify their strengths & weaknesses, and how they can build on them.

• They help create customer loyalty.

Knowing and understanding customer needs is the focal point of every successful business. Satisfied customers will keep supporting businesses that provide the same positive experience every time.

• They help businesses find – and make – better employees.

When businesses understand their complaints, they can improve their consumer services and their employees. Consumer complaints provide valuable insights into how a business effectively trains its employees. They can also tell how a business’s employees do on the job. With the right insights from any number of complaints, a better training system can be introduced to employees.

• They help businesses gain more profits.

Every business has to center on the consumer to sustain themselves in the competitive market. So the more they know about their consumers, the more effective their marketing strategies will be. And profits will follow.

The Negatives

• They damage businesses’ reputations.

Whether a business is offline or online, a consumer’s bad experience can cause severe damage to its reputation. The angrier a consumer is, the more probable it will be for them to air their grievances out – be it a negative review on a website, a disgruntled social media post, or venomous word of mouth. Based on research studies, very satisfied or very dissatisfied customers are more likely to initiate positive or negative word of mouth. With the prevalence of social media, a business’s triumphs or failures have never been easier to share.

• They make businesses lose customers (past, present, and future).

One negative review on a website, one disgruntled post on social media, or one unlucky experience with a customer service representative; these situations will not just cost a business a multitude of customers temporarily. They can be enough for customers to never return.

• They make businesses lose their employees.

Consumer complaints regarding employees can affect the turnover rate. When some employees aren’t pulling their weight (or deemed not to be pulling their weight), the others will begrudgingly pick up their slack when those employees get fired.

This situation can lead to bitterness and resentment from the employees left behind taking on additional responsibilities not meant to be theirs. As a result, these employees will eventually leave.

• They make businesses lose profits.

Poor care for consumers will lead to more consumer complaints. A decline in profits can then follow. Depending on the severity of complaints given and consumer support lost, the resulting number of profits a company or business can lose could have a lasting impact on its finances.

Consumer complaints can be defined as the gaps between what a company or business promises regarding the products or services they provide and what consumers receive (gaps in product or service quality). They are also a means to gather knowledge regarding a consumer’s beliefs, needs, and perspectives. Most of the time, consumers who complain are merely looking for help and guidance. They can just respond to common issues in businesses, such as incidental charges, overpricing, product safety concerns, service quality, and misleading advertising. 

A business should be thankful to its customers for sharing their opinions and complaints. It helps to understand the challenges customers are facing with their products and services. Consumer complaints can reveal many unexpected opportunities for growth, and smart businesses must recognize them. Complaints are inevitable, however, no matter how hard you work or how great your products are. No one can satisfy anyone, all the time. Businesses just have to know how to roll when the consumers come with the punches.