Perceived Satisfaction with Organizational Response to Complaints and Repeat Purchase Intention (original) (raw)

CUSTOMER COMPLAINT HANDLING AND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY: ANY CORRELATION

ard as firms try to render hitch free service to customers, service failures still do occur, which triggers complaint behaviors; and the expertise with which such complaints Har e handled determines the health of a firm's relationship with its customers. This study sought to determine the connection between customer complaint management and relationship quality. The study used customer satisfaction, trust, commitment and conflict resolution as metrics of relationship quality. Adopting a descriptive research design, the study utilized questionnaire as instrument of primary data collection. Data collected and used for the study was drawn from one thousand and twenty (1,020) respondents drawn from twenty (20) money deposit banks in Port Harcourt. The test statistic used in the study was the Spearman's Rank Order Correlation (rho), relying on SPSS version 20.0.The findings are that complaint handling has positive and statistically significant correlation with conflict resolution, customer satisfaction and trust, while the relationship between complaint handling and commitment is found to be positive but weak. The study concluded that complaint handling drives relationship quality through conflict resolution, customer satisfaction and trust, and recommend that firms which crave quality relationship with their customers must design appropriate complaint handling schemes that do not only effectively address customer complaints when they arise, but also ensures conflict resolution, customer satisfaction and build trust. The study also recommends that firms must train their customer service personnel to be creative, constructive and professional in handling customer complaints in order to resolve conflicts quickly and satisfactorily.