Note:  The following is an exerpt from Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul's newest book, Emotional Upgrades, publisher Berrett-Koehler, which will be released in early 2000. Please note this material is copyrighted material and is still in preliminary form. Please do not duplicate it. Thank you for this consideration.

    A great deal of research has been conducted on individual consumers and their dissatisfaction. Little has been conducted about the dissatisfaction of industrial buyers. Industrial buyers tend to get to know their suppliers very well over an extended period of time and frequently form close, dependant relationships with them. A critical quality variable, therefore, for industrial customers is how well the seller responds when there is a problem.

    One of the biggest difference between individual buyers and industrial buyers, is that industrial buyers tend to have complaints not only after they purchase, but before they buy, and while they buy. Industrial buyers also tend to complain more than individual customers when they conclude that their supplier is not optimal:

•   if there are limited options for them to go elsewhere, 
•  when the buyer is larger than the supplier in terms of company size or revenues, 
•  if the buyer is well-trained and experienced, when the supplier sells itself on high quality, 
•  if the company perceives the supplier to be at fault, or 
•  if the buyer perceives the cost of complaining is smaller than the benefits to be gained. 

    Because of the complexity of this type of customer-supplier relationship, special strategies are needed in order to manage this relationship.

    1) Make sure customer goals are clearly stated and written down. Keep referring back to these written goals as the contract proceeds. Tracking verbal statements is not done to "protect one's backside," but rather to insure a clear, orderly professional relationship. Each meeting with the customer should conclude with a summary statement as to everything said and agreed, followed by written confirmation so there are no surprises.

    2) Establish clear communication links with your buyers. Assign a limited a number of people to a contract, so the buyer can enjoy a first name relationship with company representatives. Special beeper numbers assigned to customers will give them a feeling of greater accessibility to the supplier.

Note: As far as we know only three papers have attempted to analyze organizational complaint behavior. 1) Scott Hansen, Thomas L. Powers, and John E. Swan, "Modeling Industrial Buyer Complaints: Implications for Satisfying and Saving Customers," Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 5, No. 4, Fall, 1997, pages 12-22. 2) Fred I. Trawick and John E. Swan, "Complaint Behavior by Industrial Buyers: Buyer Roles and Organizational Factors," in Southern Marketing Association, Carl H. Anderson, Blaise J. Bergiel and John H. Summey, eds., Carbondale: Southern Marketing Association, pages 81-83. 3) Alvin Williams and C.P. Rao, "Industrial Buyer Complaining Behavior," Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 9, 1980, pages 299-304.
 
 

Janelle M. Barlow, Ph.D. and Dianna Maul 
Emotional Upgrades, Adding Authentic Value to the Experience Economy, Berrett-Koehler, 2000.
 

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages: 
 

#1	Overselling Service
#2	Not Listening to Complaints
#3	Plastic Chicken
#4	Complaints You Can Do Nothing About
#5	A+ Complaint Handling
#6	Beware! Others are Watching You
#7	At Least Keep Talking!
#8	Let Customers Know You'll Tell Someone
#9	If You're Going to Apologize, Then Mean It
#10	Keep Front-life Staff Well Informed
#11	Don't Set Goals to Reduce Complaints
#12	Products Used During Special Events
#13	Best Practices of Complaint-friendly Organizations
#14	Complaints About Mother Nature!
#15	Socially Offensive Situations
#16	A Complaint Is a Gift in Action
#17	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, I
#18	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, II
#19	Creating an Internal Service Culture

We invite you to submit your "best" examples by fax or e-mail. We won't print any company names with the "poor" examples, because we believe that every organization fails from time to time. We will give credit to companies delighting their customers. In the case of the "poor" examples, we'll comment on how we think this situation could have been handled better. If you want us to list your name, please tell us that is what you want to do.

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Training Program 

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Book

Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow

tel: 702 939-1800

fax: 702 939-1804

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