Complaint Handling and Channel Selection in the Interactive Marketing Era

Abstract

Complaint behavior in interactive channels has ceased to be a new phenomenon. Consumers are instead turning to new interactive tools to express dissatisfaction with companies that fail to meet their expectations due to the wide array of private (e.g., WhatsApp) and public (e.g., review platforms) channels presently available. While private complaint channels provide the advantage of dealing with the complaint out of the public eye, observers never become aware of the firm’s effectiveness. In contrast, while public complaint channels enable brands to demonstrate how much they care about customers, they also entail the risk of damaging the brand’s reputation if the resolution does not evolve smoothly and satisfactorily. Complainants will choose a channel to voice their demands depending on their goals (i.e., revenge vs. redress-seeking) and the benefits they associate with the respective channels. In this context, companies must decide which channels to rely on and the procedure to follow in the event of a complaint. As such, brands should not only pay attention to the types of responses that engender more favorable customer responses but also to prevention and brand-building strategies, as these have become especially salient in this interactive era and may support the implementation of an integral complaint handling strategy.