Consumer Complaints as Market Intelligence: Orienting Context and Conceptual Framework

Abstract

This paper renews calls for the examination of consumer complaint information as part of the firm's marketing information mix. Complaints, a form of customer initiated communication, are a potentially rich source of marketing information, and can complement other types of marketing data. To this end, we highlight the importance of organizational level complaint management for practitioners and academics; place complaint information in relationship to organizational learning, total quality management, and market/customer orientation; describe an organizational level benefit-cost framework relating to perceptions of information use; and offer propositions related to factors that could influence benefit-cost perceptions of complaint information use.