Revealing the expectations and preferences of complaining customers by combining the laddering interviewing technique with the Kano model of customer satisfaction

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to focus on complaint satisfaction with a particular emphasisrnon the qualities and behaviours that affect customers during personal complaint handling encounters.rnDesign/methodology/approach - Following a literature review of complaint satisfaction and thernrole of customer contact employees in complaint encounters, an exploratory study using both thernladdering interviewing technique and Kano questionnaires is presented.rnFindings - The laddering results indicate that being taken seriously in the complaint encounter andrnthe employee's friendliness, listening skills and competence are particularly important. The fact thatrninterpersonal factors are highly regarded indicates that customers want to satisfy these process needsrnfirst and their outcome expectations second. The Kano results show that employees' active listeningrnskills are the only must-be requirements while the two concepts "Apology" and "RespectfulrnTreatment" are close to being must-be criteria. In addition, the employee's feedback after the complaintrnhandling encounter can almost be categorized as an excitement factor.rnResearch limitations/implications - Owing to the exploratory nature of the study and the scopernand size of the chosen sample, the results outlined are tentative in nature.rnOriginality/value - By combing two research methods, this paper develops an area of research thatrncould reap considerable benefits for researchers interested in the area of customer complaintrnsatisfaction.