How Many Lost Customers have you Won Back Today?: An Aggressive Approach to Complaint Handling in the Hotel Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between consumer complaint behavior and
complaint handling at the corporate and unit levels in the hotel industry. Both consumer and management attitudes, behavior, and actions in regard to consumer complaints toward a major hotel chain were surveyed. An analysis was made of the hotel managements' complaint-handling procedures and the effect these had on the consumer's attitude and intention to return either to the hotel at which the complaint was made or to any hotel in the chain. The results lead to the development of more effective tools for handling complaints.