Third-Party Complaint Intentions

What it measures

Four items measure the likelihood that a dissatisfied consumer would take their complaint to external parties—consumer agencies, media, or legal channels—rather than addressing it directly with the marketer.

Response format

6-point (1=definitely would not, 6=definitely would)

Scale items

• Complain to a consumer agency and ask them to make the repair shop take care of the problem. [item may be truncated]
• Write a letter to a local newspaper about your bad experience?
• Report to a consumer agency so that they can warn other consumers?
• Take some legal action against the repair shop/manufacturer.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Drawn from Day (1984); original to Singh (1988, 1990). Alphas .805 (Bougie et al. 2003) and .84 (Singh 1990). Items were developed in a repair-shop context—blanks and references may need updating for other service settings.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Singh, J. (1988). Consumer complaint intentions and behavior: Definitional and taxonomical issues. Journal of Marketing, 52(1), 93–107.

Keywords