Quality of Process Guidelines for Complaint Handling

What it measures

Measures the quality of an organisation's formal process guidelines for customer complaint handling, operationalising the mechanistic approach to complaint management. Items assess whether guidelines are clearly defined and simple, whether time standards govern complaint duration, whether staff are required to update customers on complaint status, and whether procedures exist for recording and forwarding complaint information efficiently. Higher scores indicate more complete and customer-aligned process guidelines. Administered to the manager with primary responsibility for complaint management.

Representative items

• In our company/business unit, guidelines for registering and processing customer complaints are clearly defined.
• In our company/business unit, guidelines for registering and processing customer complaints include time standards that define the normal or maximum duration of the entire process.
• In our company/business unit, guidelines for registering and processing customer complaints include instructions to inform customers about the current status of their complaint within a reasonable period of time.

Citation

Homburg, C., & Fürst, A. (2005). How organizational complaint handling drives customer loyalty: An analysis of the mechanistic and the organic approach. Journal of Marketing, 69(3), 95–114.