Toll-free numbers are everywhere. More than 10,000 products have toll-free numbers stamped on them. There are close to a million toll-free lines in the United States alone, receiving more than ten billion calls per year. That's approximately 27 million calls daily into toll-free lines.

Calls to an organization are different from written communication. "What" is said is more important in written communication. "How" it is said is more important over the telephone. Researchers Charles L. Martin and Denise T. Smart, both professors of Marketing, decided to look specifically  at how consumers react to the calls they place on toll free lines. They asked two questions in their research: how are toll-free number calls actually handled, and how satisfied were customers with their experience?

Here's what they discovered.
 

• Most calls are answered by two rings, but the majority of these answers were responded to by a recorded message. 55% of the callers were placed on hold at least one during their experience. The average call lasted approximately six minutes, with 16% lasting 13 minutes or longer. Eighty percent of the calls resulted in the caller getting all the information they requested. 

• Confirming previous research, this group of test subjects reported that the person they spoke with was less courteous and less interested in them than the operators who handled simple inquiries or compliments.

• Complaining customers (58%) reported feeling much more satisfied when they received an apology than if they were denied one (6%).

• Customers reported feeling positive about 1) having their questions answered; 2) receiving a thank you for calling; and 3) being asked to call again.

• When asked for suggestions to improve their experience, the number one item mentioned was to reduce waiting periods. They also recommend avoiding placing the consumer in the situation of having to explain their situation over and over again as their calls were transferred. The test subjects also recommended improved interpersonal skills on the part of the operators.

• One of the interesting conclusions the researchers drew is that if these calls are handled well, they can encourage a high degree of loyalty

This is a complicated piece of research, and the reader wish to get a copy of the entire article: "Consumer Experiences Calling Toll-free Corporate Hotlines," Journal of Business Communication, v31n3 [, 1994], pp. 195-212.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Janelle Barlow, coauthor
A Complaint Is a Gift
 
 

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
#20	When Your Customers are Industrial Buyers
#21	Customers Who are Poor Complainers
#22	Complaints That are Difficult to Talk About
#23	Do You Mistreat Your Customers?
#24	Fairness: Treatment of Staff
#25	Expectations and Complaints

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

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