Consumer-complainant’s contentment with reference to performance of consumer dispute redressal machinery

Abstract

Recognizing the significance of customer retention and creation, customer centric firms are continuously and systematically measuring customer satisfaction in terms of how well their customers are being treated and what are the factors influencing customer satisfaction level. Even when conscious efforts are being made by the business to keep its customers satisfied, there may be an instance where a consumer instead of getting his/her grievance resolved with the vendor/service provider approaches the consumer forum i.e. third party for resolution of grievance. An important question that arises in such scenario is that whether such aggrieved persons are satisfied with the offering of the forum or not. Moreover, in today’s dynamic and digital world, third party complaints are on continuous rise. The present study focuses on identifying various factors which influence the satisfaction level of consumer complainants. Through well designed questionnaire, involving likert scale statements related to distributive, procedural and interactional justice, responses have been collected from 300 respondents from the district of Ludhiana from the State of Punjab. Analysis of responses, using factor analysis technique, has enabled the identification of factors such as convenience and cost, behavioural aspect and credentials of the personnel working with consumer dispute redressal forums, established under Consumer Protection Act 1986.