International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Emerald Article: Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services Vincent C. S. Heung, Terry Lam Article information: To cite this document: Vincent C. S. Heung, Terry Lam, (2003),”Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 15 Iss: 5 pp. 283 – 289 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. doi. org/10. 108/09596110310482209 Downloaded on: 07-11-2012 References: This document contains references to 34 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 22 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight. com This document has been downloaded 6894 times since 2005. * Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL AND CONTINUING EDU LIBRARIES For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service.

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The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download. Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services Vincent C. S. Heung School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong Terry Lam School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong Keywords Complaints, Consumer behaviour, Demographics, Hotels, Hong Kong Introduction

Customer satisfaction has long been a matter for concern and attention by hotel restaurant managers. Barlow (1996) stated that keeping customers satisfied is vitally important for hotel restaurants to generate revenues. To achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, it is important to meet customer expectations. However, it is sometimes difficult to realize what customers expect unless they wish to feedback their opinions to the restaurants. Customer feedback is available in many forms, and complaints are the most useful and meaningful source of information to improve customer satisfaction (Sanes, 1993).

In a well-developed country, or a city like Hong Kong, most people are already well educated and informed of their rights as a consumer, and able to complain through various channels to restaurant managers, hotel management, and the media. Academic researchers have focused on studies of customer complaint behaviour (CCB) in recent years (e. g. Rogers et al. , 1992). It has been found that if CCB is not recognized and customer complaints are not handled properly, the bad consequences may be far-reaching.

Dissatisfied customers will not only give up patronage, but are also likely to spread a bad message jeopardizing the company’s image (Lewis, 1983). Given the huge cost of losing a customer that outweighs the cost of making corrections or any resolutions in handling complaints, it becomes critically important for hotel restaurant managers to understand customer complaint behavour in hotel restaurants, and the relationship between such complaint behaviour and customer demographic characteristics such as age, gender and education levels. The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at http://www. meraldinsight. com/researchregister Abstract The area of customer complaint behaviour has received considerable attention from hotel managers as dissatisfied customers engage in a variety of complaint actions that could ruin the reputation of a hotel. This study examined Chinese customer complaint behaviour towards Hong Kong hotel restaurant services. The main objectives were to identify complaint patterns and the relationships between customers’ demographic backgrounds such as age, gender and education levels; and their complaint behaviours.

Based on a survey of 220 hotel restaurant diners, complainers and noncomplainers were identified. The research findings suggested that at most customers are likely to engage in private complaint behaviours such as word-of-mouth communication and ceasing to patronize the restaurant. It highlights that the complaint intentions of Chinese diners were quite low and they were passive about communicating dissatisfaction to restaurateurs. Restaurateurs can make use of these findings to improve their existing customer feedback systems and complaint handling strategies.

Therefore, the objectives of this study are fourfold: 1 to identify the underlying factors influencing customer complaint behaviour; 2 to examine customer complaint motivation; 3 to assess the relationships between demographic characteristics (age, gender and education) and complaint behaviour; and 4 to make recommendations to restaurant managers for preventing and/or professionally handling customer complaints. Nature of customer complaint International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 15/5 [2003] 283-289 # MCB UP Limited [ISSN 0959-6119] [DOI 10. 108/09596110310482209] Customer complaints have been treated as an important opportunity for restaurant operators in hotels to improve. They can help hotels to be aware of the problems and to rectify them in a timely and spontaneous fashion (Barlow, 1996). An effective complaint management system in place can facilitate maximization of customer loyalty (Kemp, 1999). Complaint behaviour is defined by Jacoby and Jaccard (1981) as an action taken by an individual that involves communicating something negative regarding a product or service.

Mowen (1993) stated that complaint behaviour is any one of a number of actions that is triggered by perceived dissatisfaction with a purchase episode. Some scholars have even diagnosed complaint behaviour in terms of action-taking. Day and Landon (1977) proposed a two-level hierarchical classification of actions which defines the complaint behaviour. The first level distinguishes action from no action. The most likely explanation for taking no action is that it is not worth the time and effort (Day et al. , 1981). However, Sanes (1993) states that the greatest pitfall of all is the unheard complaint.

The second distinguishes public The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. com/0959-6119. htm [ 283 ] Vincent C. S. Heung and Terry Lam Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 15/5 [2003] 283-289 actions from private actions. Public actions include seeking redress or refund from the seller, and private actions refer to word-ofmouth communication to friends and relatives and ceasing to patronize the restaurants.

Grabicke (1981) further explained that private actions generally do not come to the direct attention of the seller and thus could have a serious impact on sales and profitability. Cultural issues Previous studies in the literature have found that culture is one of the influential factors in complaint behaviour. On one hand, a customer’s complaint habit mostly determines his/her motive to make a complaint. On the other hand, the cultural factor may affect a customer’s complaint motive. In the Chinese context, a public argument is a face-losing act and damages interpersonal harmony (Gao et al. 1996). Therefore, the Chinese tend to adopt an unassertive style of communication approach. Such a style often leads to avoidance and silence even if they are dissatisfied. Le Claire (1993) articulated that, in the context of a Chinese environment such as Hong Kong, the four Chinese cultural values of harmony, moderation, face and reciprocity shape customer attitude towards this behaviour. To avoid confrontation and maintain social harmony, customers may adopt less confrontational and more indirect modes of complaint behaviour such as doing nothing or using private action.

However, the prevailing social climate towards complaint action is related to complaint inclination (Day and Landon, 1977). As the laws for protecting customers become consolidated, and the government body dealing with unfair treatment of customers becomes transparent, Hong Kong customers are prone to complain if they are not satisfied with a business transaction. costs and time spent on a complaint are perceived as exceeding the benefits as a result of a complaint, customers will tend to remain silent and take no action (Day and Landon, 1977).

Non-complainers considered that complaining was done by people with little else to do and believed that it would be futile (Kau and Serene, 1995). Some of the demographic variables were found to be related to complaint behaviours. Female customers are more inclined to complain (Kau et al. , 1995), and tell others if they are dissatisfied with the complaint handling (Lewis, 1983). These results contradicted the findings by Manikas and Shea (1997) that the male customers complained more than the female. Jacoby and Jaccard (1981) found out that customers with a higher education were more likely to complain.

Morganosky and Buckley (1986) also pointed out that education is one of the significant characteristics of complainers. Day and Landon (1977) stated that those who publicly complained were younger in age and had a better education and higher income. Beardon and Mason (1984) identified similar results and pointed out that complaint behaviour was inversely related to age and positively linked to income and education. Research method The sample The survey was conducted over a period of three consecutive weekends outside hotel restaurants where the target samples of hotel restaurant diners were selected by a systematic random sampling method.

Six hotels of different classes were chosen randomly from a hotel list provided by the Hong Kong Hotels Association. Every fifth customer leaving the hotel restaurants was invited to complete the questionnaire. The complaint motivation and patterns are complex. Williams et al. (1993) described customer complaint behaviour as a function of dissatisfaction. Singh and Wilkes (1996) also stated that dissatisfaction is a significant factor that attributes to complaints. Kau and Serene (1995) articulated that dissatisfaction was caused by negative disconfirmation of purchase expectations that led to legitimate complaint behaviour.

Kivela (1999) further examined the disconfirmation effect on dining satisfaction and its impact on return patronage, and found that they were related to the post-dining behaviour such as bad-mouthing or taking no action. An evaluation of costs and benefits about a complaint is another factor that turns an affective dissatisfaction into an action. If the Complaint behaviour and demographic variables Questionnaire design A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from samples of customers in hotel restaurants. The survey questionnaire consisted of three parts.

The first part was about the respondents’ complaint behaviour towards food, service and atmosphere in the restaurants. The construct of customer complaint behaviour used in this part was based on the studies by Le Claire (1993). The respondents were asked to indicate what complaint behaviour they would likely choose from a list of possible complaint behaviour in response to dissatisfaction with the hotel restaurants. The list of complaint behaviour included: . “complain in person”; . “warn families and friends”; . “divert to the mass media”; [ 284 ] Vincent C.

S. Heung and Terry Lam Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 15/5 [2003] 283-289 . . “complain to the Consumer Council”; and “complain by writing a letter to management”. A five-point Likert scale was employed ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The second part identified the respondents in terms of complainers or non-complainers. Complainers were those having a higher intention to complain while non-complainers were those having less intention to complain.

A statement was asked whether the respondent would complain if they were dissatisfied in a hotel restaurant. A nominal scale was used with “yes” and “no” items. Based on Lewis’s (1983) study, the construct measuring complaint motives was developed. The respondents were asked what encouraged or discouraged them to complain. The complaint-motive variables included “seeking compensation”, “seeking redress”, “seeking apology”, “requesting corrective action”, “asking for explanation”, and “expressing emotional anger”.

The scale used was a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The final part was related to the demographic characteristics of the respondents such as age, gender, education level, and personal monthly salary. The questionnaire was translated into Chinese using the “blind translation-back-translation method” (Brislin, 1976). The survey instrument was piloted with 30 hotel restaurant customers. The reliability, validity, and completeness of responses were assessed. Some modifications of words and sentences were made to the instrument as a result of the pilot test.

The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software was employed to analyse the data collected from the actual survey. Data were analysed using frequency distributions, percentages, means, chi-square analysis, and cross-tabulation analysis. one-quarter of the respondents gave their responses to the question on monthly income. Of those responses, more than half (64 per cent) had a monthly salary between HK$20,000 and HK$40,000. Due to the low level of responses, the income variable was excluded from the analysis.

Types of complaint behaviour Table II presents the mean scores and standard deviation of the respondents’ complaint behaviour. The results show that the most common types of complaint behaviour included “warn family and friends”, and “stop patronizing the restaurant” if customers were dissatisfied. These two types of behaviours appear to be more critical as compared with others because the customers will not only refuse to re-patronize the restaurants if they are dissatisfied, but also warn people not to patronize the restaurant.

The consequences arising from the damage seem to be immense because the restaurant may lose many of its existing and potential customers eventually. Complaint motives Results and discussion Demographic profile of respondents A total number of 251 questionnaires were distributed. A total of 225 were collected representing a response rate of 89. 6 per cent. However, five were discarded due to incompleteness of the questionnaires, and 220 were used for analysis. The profile of the respondents is shown in Table I, which indicates that 107 (49 per cent) were males and 113 (51 per cent) were females.

Most of the respondents were in the age group of 35 to 44 (29 per cent), followed by 25-34 (27 per cent). A total of 24 per cent of the respondents had primary level of education, 31 per cent had attained secondary level, and the majority of the respondents (45 per cent) had university level education. About The most common complaint motives include “seek corrective actions” (mean score = 4. 50), and “ask for explanation” (mean score = 4. 10), followed by “seek apology” (mean score = 3. 98) and “express emotional anger” (mean score = 3. 3) (Table III), and complainers do not really focus on compensation as compared to other motives in the study. The motives of “seek compensation” (mean score = 3. 23) and “seek redress”’ (mean score = 3. 16) were rated relatively low. It appears that among all the motives, complainers wanted the restaurants to redress the problems immediately in the case of customers’ dissatisfaction. It is also important that the restaurants should explain frankly the possible causes of mistakes and errors and apologise sincerely to dissatisfied customers.

Complaint behaviour and age groups The results show that the relationship between patronage age groups and the types of complainers was significant at the level of 0. 05 (Table IV). On the one hand, it was found that 24. 4 per cent of the complainers were in the age group of 18-24 while 66. 4 per cent of the complainers were in the middle age group (25-44). Those over the age of 45 who were inclined to complain only counted for 9. 2 per cent. Similar findings were described in Day and Landon’s (1977) study that customers who publicly complained were younger in age.

On the other hand, 22. 5 per cent in the age group of 35-44 were non-complainers, and 45 per cent were in the [ 285 ] Vincent C. S. Heung and Terry Lam Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 15/5 [2003] 283-289 age of 45 or above. Therefore, the young and middle age groups were more inclined to complain than the older age group. One of the possible reasons for the findings is that the younger and middle age groups were more demanding towards the food, service, and atmosphere in a restaurant.

Their framework of value judgment is so strong that if they think what they receive from a restaurant does not meet their pre-set values, the psychological pressure would compel them to take action so that the value can be met. Such findings were supported by Warland et al. (1975), Day and Landon (1977), and Bearden and Mason (1984), who suggested that the likelihood of complaints and age were negatively linked, and customers who were inclined to publicize complaints were younger in age. The results show that 60 per cent of the complainers were females.

For the non-complainers, males represented about 61 per cent. It can be concluded from the study that the female customers are more likely to voice their complaint than the male counterparts. These results concur with the findings of similar previous studies that female complainers have a higher intention to complain and tell others about the complaint if they are dissatisfied (Kau et al. , 1995). Complaint behaviour and education levels Complaint behaviour and gender Table V illustrates the relationship of gender characteristic and the types of complainers.

Table I Demographic profile of respondents Demographic characteristics Gender Male Female Age (years) 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55 or above Educational level Primary Secondary University or above Personal monthly income (HK$) 10,000 or below 10,001-20,000 20,001-30,000 30,001-40,000 40,001-50,000 50,000 or above Frequency 107 113 46 59 63 35 17 53 68 99 6 6 14 26 4 3 Percentage 49 51 21 27 29 16 7 24 31 45 11 11 20 44 8 6 The educational level was found to be significantly related to customer complaint intention as summarized in Table VI.

It was found 67. 2 per cent of the complainers were at the education levels of university or above and almost 45 per cent of the non-complainers were at the primary education level. It appears that customers with a higher education are more likely to complain. A possible reason for the finding is that better educated customers may be more knowledgeable about their rights as a consumer, and the method of redressing their complaints if they are not satisfied with the purchase. Implications for managers

According to this study, the essential motive of customer complaints is to seek corrective actions by the hotel restaurants to put things right, and to ask management to explain and apologize. Habits and payoff of complaints are important factors of determining whether customers complain or not. Given the importance of “complaint” which provides customer feedback to management, it is imperative to develop a channel of communication between management and customers, and that the channel is perceived to be useful and effective by customers.

Based on the findings of this study, a number of implications can be drawn. First, complaint handling policies and procedures should be developed and well received by employees. The objective of the policies and procedures is to enable the employees to understand the importance of customer satisfaction and customer service recovery, and the skills of handling customer dissatisfaction. The relevant policies and procedures should be included in the employee handbook and displayed in an eye-catching back-of-the-house areas of the restaurant.

Second, training is important for developing customer complaint handling skills. Video shows and role plays of complaint handling should be included in the Table II Types of restaurant customers’ complaint behaviour Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Complaint behaviour Warn family and friends Stop patronizing the restaurant Complain to upper level Write comment card Write complaint letters Write to newspapers/mass media Complain to Consumer Council Meana 4. 14 4. 05 3. 49 2. 91 1. 66 1. 36 1. 19 SD 0. 52 1. 04 1. 12 1. 18 1. 16 1. 01 0. 91

Notes: a Scale: 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree); (n = 220) [ 286 ] Vincent C. S. Heung and Terry Lam Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 15/5 [2003] 283-289 Table III Customers’ complaint motives Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 6 Complaint motives Seek corrective action Ask for explanation Seek apology Express emotional anger Seek compensation Seek redress Meana 4. 50 4. 10 3. 98 3. 63 3. 23 3. 16 SD 0. 72 0. 90 1. 05 1. 12 1. 17 1. 13 Notes: a Scale: 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree); (n = 131)

Table IV Analysis of age groups on types of complainers Age groups 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55 or above Total Chi-square tests Pearson Likelihood ratio Linear-by-linear association Notes: * p ;lt; 0. 05; (n = 220) Table V Analysis of gender on types of complainers Gender Male Female Total Chi-square tests Pearson Likelihood ratio Linear-by-linear association Notes:* p ;lt; 0. 05; (n = 220) training sessions, which help employees to consolidate the proper concepts and develop professional behaviour towards customer complaints.

When complainers find that employees treat their complaints seriously and resolve them immediately, their dissatisfaction may turn into satisfaction, trust, and confidence. Third, to encourage dissatisfied customers to feedback, professional comment cards and/ or feedback forms should be provided for customers. Incentives such as free drinks, food or drink coupons can be given to those who submit the forms. Importantly, managers should take a proactive role to communicate with customers so that they may hear the unassertive customers’ complaint. Fourth, the concept of “complaint is a gift” should be emphasized among employees.

Employees should bear a positive attitude towards “criticism”. Managers should strengthen the proper concept at every training and/or briefing occasion for their employees. Fifth, recognition should be given to employees who are able to seek, correct, and Complainers No. Per cent 32 44 43 11 1 131 24. 4 33. 6 32. 8 8. 4 0. 8 100. 0 Non-complainers No. Per cent 14 15 20 24 16 89 15. 7 16. 9 22. 5 27. 0 18. 0 100. 0 Value DF Asymp. Sig. * 30. 380 32. 133 23. 119 4 4 1 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 Complainers No. Per cent 53 78 131 40. 5 59. 5 100. 0 Non-complainers No. Per cent 54 35 89 60. 7 39. 3 100. 0 Value DF Asymp.

Sig. * 8. 670 7. 880 8. 631 1 1 1 0. 003 0. 005 0. 003 [ 287 ] Vincent C. S. Heung and Terry Lam Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 15/5 [2003] 283-289 Table VI Analysis of education levels on types of complainers Education Primary Secondary University or above Total Chi-square tests Pearson Likelihood ratio Linear-by-linear association Notes: * p < 0. 05; (n = 220) anticipate mistakes. Those employees who can turn complaining customers into good-will ambassadors should be publicly appreciated and rewarded immediately.

A company pin or a subsidy for education fees for an outside developing programme can be offered to the winners. This recognition practice can help develop a culture for professionally handling complaint customers. Sixth, management should pay particular attention to the younger and better-educated customers since they are more likely to complain. These groups may be considered as more active groups and restaurant management and employees should particularly respond to their complaints promptly and technically. The more quickly a complaint is dealt with, the greater the chance that it can be resolved in customer satisfaction.

Restaurateurs should emphasize the importance of identifying the customer complaint factors and complaint intentions that crucially determine their business success. With respect to those who consider that complaints are worthless and have no gain, management should consider enhancing mutual communication between service personnel in the restaurants, and customers. Face-to-face communication between the parties appears to be more effective in building up customers’ confidence and trust in giving feedback than by simply asking customers to fill out the “Customer survey form”.

Due to the relatively small sample size, the results of this study can only provide a general picture of the nature of customer complaint behaviour in hotel restaurants, and the relationships of such complaint behaviour with customer’s age, gender and education level. Further studies are suggested with a larger sample for confirmation of the findings. More in-depth studies are recommended to investigate the complaint behaviours of restaurant customers at different classes of hotels to see if differences exist. Complainers No. Per cent 13 30 88 131 9. 9 22. 9 67. 2 100. 0 Non-complainers No. Per cent 40 38 11 89 44. 42. 7 12. 4 100. 0 Value DF Asymp. Sig. * 66. 006 72. 580 61. 639 3 3 1 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 Conclusion This study has provided some valuable information and insights on customer complaint behaviour in hotel restaurants. Complainers seek corrective actions from management. More importantly, they want to be respected. Employees in restaurants should explain and apologize whenever necessary to dissatisfied customers so as to build up trust and confidence among the customers. Female, young and well-educated customers tend to complain more, and they should handle complaints promptly and carefully.

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