When a customer expresses dissatisfaction, they may be seeking to assert a right they deem legitimate, whether justified or not. According to Stephen Grove, Raymond Fisk, and Joby John, rising education levels have led to increased customer expectations. Technological advancements in the information age have opened up new avenues for expressing customer dissatisfaction, facilitating interactions with businesses and between customers themselves.

Complaint management, once neglected by most businesses, is now considered a crucial strategy with the shift from a transactional to a relationship-based marketing approach. According to Olivier Morrison and Jean-Pierre Mathieu, customers react negatively when they perceive the complaint process as lengthy and complex, potentially interpreting it as a deliberate strategy to discourage complaints. It is therefore imperative for businesses to offer a simple and efficient complaint handling process, while justifying processing times to customers, who place great importance on speed.

With this in mind, many companies are seeking to raise their staff’s awareness of better customer relationship management. According to Dominique Crié, considering the complaints process as an integral part of overall customer satisfaction management not only allows for a better response to dissatisfaction, but also helps prevent customer churn by acting proactively to resolve problems or prevent them from arising.