Sex Differences and Consumer Complaints: Do Men and Women Communicate Differently When They Complain to Customer Service Representatives?

Abstract

This paper examines the potential effect that a consumer's sex may have on the communication that occurs between complaining consumers and customer service representatives . Two competing theoretical approaches in the communication discipline to the study of  sex differences--  the "dual cultures" perspective and the "no differences" perspective-- are discussed.  Content analysis of 531 complaint conversations showed no significant difference in the communication content spoken by female and male consumers  in their interactions with customer service representatives. Also, revealed no significant differences in the communication content spoken by customer service representatives in their interactions  with  female  and  male  consumers. These findings, supportive of the "no differences" perspective, suggest that consumer affairs managers may not need to consider the sex of consumers as a central variable in the design of complaint management  systems.