Why don't customers complain?
In the UK Customer Care Survey conducted earlier this year, we investigated the contact handling experience of consumers reporting a problem with the product or service they used. Of the 8,873 respondents who answered that they had a problem with the products or services they used in the last year (across all industry sectors), 83% contacted or complained to the organisation at fault.
This figure by itself is probably higher than one might expect because the survey focused on the respondent's "most serious problem. So for this particular result, the data relates to reasons why customers don't complain when the problem was unlikely to be non-trivial.
Of the remaining 1,356 respondents (17%) who did not contact/complain...
- 38% shared their experience with family/friends and colleagues
- 30% decided never to do business with that organisation again
- 25% did nothing
(Multiple answers were allowed to this question. As an interesting side note – 1% completed a customer survey and 3% left a comment on a website)
Why did the customers not complain or contact the organisation/company about their problem?
Just over one third (34%) felt they did not believe anything would be done about their problem and 10% felt that the problem was too trivial – in other words customers did not want to waste their time.
A significant number of respondents answered that they did not know who/how to contact (14%), or had tried before without success (15%). Considering that 38% of these customers talk about their experience with friends and family this is a risk for businesses. These figures are also across all industries – amongst Internet Service Providers (ISPs), 40% of "non-contactors" answered that they had tried to contact before without success (broken email perhaps?); Cable/Satellite TV are similarly poor with 33% citing the same reason.
| Answer | N | % |
|---|---|---|
| I did not believe anything would be done about my problem | 464 | 34 |
| I did not believe anything could be done about my problem | 218 | 16 |
| I did not know who and/or how to contact | 189 | 14 |
| I had tried to contact before without success | 198 | 15 |
| I was afraid that the company would take some negative action against me | 63 | 5 |
| I was going to contact but never found the time | 96 | 7 |
| It is not in my nature to complain | 128 | 9 |
| Other | 138 | 10 |
| The issue was too trivial to waste my time on | 142 | 10 |
| Total | 1356 |
Table 1. Why did you not contact or complain to the [organisation at fault]?
The fear of retribution if complaining to a government organisation (e.g. HMRC or a local authority) at 28% or to hospitals (NHS or private) at 20% is higher than amongst most businesses.
Learn More
More data and results (also broken down by industry sector) from the UK Customer Care Survey are available – please contact John Kemp or Jo Lawson. Surveylab can provide individually tailored reports from the study results on customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty in your industry including a comparison of major companies' performance (subject to data availability).
An overview of the study is available here: UK Customer Care Survey 2008 Summary (Adobe PDF). Click here for more survey results, whitepapers and how-to guides.
Article first published 12 November 2008.
©2008 Surveylab Limited. All rights reserved.
Learn about Surveylab
About the Survey
The UK Customer Care Study was conducted by Surveylab during July, August and September 2008 on behalf of the Customer Care Alliance. 10,102 responses were received from a random sample of UK consumers.
Download an overview of the study's findings here: UK Customer Care Survey 2008 Summary
The Customer Care Alliance is a consortium of companies specialising in customer retention and loyalty strategy. Surveylab is a founding member and has conducted four UK Customer Care studies since 2004.
Related articles you might like:
