Part Four

Managing Customer Complaints

 Introduction
There is no such thing as an all-time 100 percent fool-proof service to all customers, more so,
there would be occasion when services fail to come up to the expectation of the customer or ever
the standards set by the organization itself. Compliant do occur. Successful organizations are
those that have realized that prompt attention to customer complaints is an essential element of
an enduring customer relation. The customer doesn’t expect that everything will go right all the
time; the big test is what you do when things go wrong. Occasional service failure is
unavoidable. Therefore, this part is concerned with compliant handling and the system of
compliant handling which help students to enhance their skill to handle compliant which occurs
during the service delivery.
 Definition, Importance and Type of Customer Compliant Action
I. Definition of compliant
Although the first law of service productivity and quality might be "Do it right the first time," we
can't ignore the fact that failures continue to occur, sometimes for reasons outside the
organization's control.
Customer Compliant is a formal expression of service dissatisfaction with any aspect of a service
experience. A complaint is any measure of dissatisfaction with your product or service, even if
it’s unfair, untrue, or painful to hear! Complaints may be about: service content, delivery or
quality, personnel, requests, communication, response time, documentation, billing, follow up,
etc.
II. Importance of compliant – why complaint handling matters?
Most of us, though, weather in the public or the private sector do nowadays have some
accountability to our customers –whether they are buying from us, using our service or satisfied
by our services. Customer care is a concept that can be seen in many organizations nowadays.
Good compliant handling is a vital element of customer service. Good compliant handling,
though, also brings other major benefits. If you are commercial organization dealing compliant
effectively will result in a net financial gain to your business. Proper compliant handling can
save your organization money by:

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  Improving profits through customer retention- Particularly as public enterprises
operate much like private organizations, dissatisfied complaints are more likely to buy
your product in the future than unhappy customer who didn’t complain at all. So by
encouraging complaints you actually increase future sales.
 Avoiding unfavorable publicity- Customer who complain about a product to the
manufacturer have their compliant deal with satisfactorily are on the other hand, likely to
pass on favorable comment to their friends. Good complaints handling can also provide
opportunities to generate good public relation and at least as important can avoid some of
the worst public relation traps.
 Avoid legal problems or worse- Good compliant handling also reduce the rise that
people will turn to one of the alternatives of which the most obvious is legal action.
 Source of information- Responsive service organizations look at complaints as a stream
of information that can be used to help monitor productivity, quality and highlight
changes needed to improve service design and execution.
III. Type of complainers
Researcher suggests that people can be grouped into categories based on how they respond to
service failures. Four categories of response type were identified and these categories of
complainer type will be relatively consistent and that each can be found in all organization.
1. Passive: This group of customer is less likely to take any action, they are unlikely to say
anything to the provider, less likely than others to spread negative word of mouth, and
unlikely to complain to a third party.
2. Voicers: This customer actively complains to the service provider, but they are less likely
to spread negative word of mouth, to switch patronage, or to go to third parties with their
complaints.
3. Irate. These customers are more likely to engage in negative word of mouth to friend
and relatives and to switch providers than others.
4. Activists. These customers are characterized by above average propensity to complain on
all dimensions: They will complaint to the provider, they will tell others, and they are
more likely than any other group to complain to their parties.
 Source, reason and expectation of customer compliant

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 I. Source of customer compliant
A common source of frustration results from: Inappropriate trade-offs between productivity and
quality, when a firm tries to boost productivity without thinking about its impact on customers.
Perhaps some of the product elements are poorly executed or may be the service processes in
which you are involved are badly organized, shortcomings in delivery- place and time are
common. For example, a service may be unavailable where and when you want it; or a Web site
may not be functioning satisfactorily.
Failings in physical evidence include ugly or poorly maintained facilities and dirty or poorly
fitting staff uniforms. Price and other user outlays are a major source of complaints. Your
disappointment with a service may also have resulted from promotion and education strategies
that promised too much (thus raising your expectations too high), or failed to instruct you
properly in how to use the service. And perhaps you were inconvenienced or annoyed at some
point by the behavior of the people in a service environment-either customer-contact personnel
or other customers.
II. Factors Influencing Complaining Behavior
Some customers are more likely to complain than others. They believe they will be provided
compensation for the service failure in some form, fair treatment and good service are their due
in case of service failure, they feel a social obligation to complain to help others avoid similar
situation or to punish the service provider and in some cases a very small number of consumers
have complaining personalities they just like to complain or cause trouble.
Those who are unlikely to take any action hold the opposite beliefs. They often see complaining
as a waste of their time and effort. They don’t believe anything positive will occur for them or
others based on their actions. Sometimes they don’t know how to complain. In general, studies of
customer complaining behavior have identified two main purposes for complaining.
The first one is to recover some economic loss, seeking either to get a refund or to have the
service performed again. They may take legal action if the problem remains unresolved.
The second reason is, to rebuild self-esteem. When service employees are rude, aggressive,
deliberately intimidating, or apparently uncaring the customers' self-esteem, self-worth, or sense
of fairness may be negatively affected. They may feel that they should be treated with more
respect and become angry or emotional.

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 III. When they complain, what do customers expect?
When they take time and effort to complain, customer generally has high expectation. They
expect to be helped quickly. They expect to be compensated for their grief and for the hassle of
being inconvenienced. And they expect to be treated nicely in the process. Customer expect fair
treatment, specifically, customers want justice and fairness in handling their complaints.

Part Five
Handling Difficult Customers
 Introduction
Our response to difficult moments defines what level of service we are capable of providing. We
are judged by our actions and it would be best to try to resolve the situation in the best manner
possible. Giving your customers the idea that you truly care about their situation will soften their
stance and prevent them from being too difficult. If you are able to defuse your customers’
tendency to be difficult, you will be able to give your suggestions and have these suggestions
accepted, followed and appreciated.
One of the essentials behind delivering good services is the art of handling difficult customers.
To handle difficult customers, you must see things through their eyes, feel through their heart,
smell through their nose, and touch through their fingers. In other words, you must walk in their
shoes. And that is very easily said, but difficult to do. It may be our objective to provide our
customers the best service available. It may be our goal to perform in a manner that would make
our customers happy. However, in our pursuit of such deeds, we come across instances that
leave us quite short of that resolve.
 How to win over a difficult Customer
How we handle difficult customers is critical because they can cause other difficult situations.
Below are some steps that we have to follow in order to handle the situation with difficult
customers.
a. Let the customer speak out
Remember what an angry person wants. What an angry person really wants is to vent his/her
anger. Unfortunately, they take their anger out on you and blame you for what happened, even
though you are just doing their job. Often, it’s best to let them have their say before you respond

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 with any words whatsoever. This allows them to vent and you will be in a better position to calm
them down.
Besides, it must not be your position to judge or “correct” the customer. If they are angry with
you, never make statements. Rather your job is to serve them, if you can manage to calm them
down and send them out the door in a better state of mind, then you have indeed, handled the
situation well.
Moreover, no matter how you can say and do everything right, you might still not be able to
defuse the situation. A customer may hang the phone down on you or walk out cursing you.
Remember that your job is to just zip your lip.
b. Don’t take it personally
If you accept that in every business, difficult customers come with the territory. Simply do your
best to handle them with professionalism. Do not let your emotions get the better of you. Try to
be objective and detach your emotional responses from whatever caustic remarks you might
hear. So be prepared for the attack, let it pass, and move on.
c. Appreciating and understanding their feeling
To show empathy is to give a brief and sincere expression of appreciating and understanding
someone else’s feelings while not necessarily agreeing with them. Empathy helps you
demonstrate understanding of the customer’s feelings. A key strategy in this step is to
communicate that you can relate to how this person is feeling and you do this by using “I”
statements such as: “I appreciate your frustration….”,“I understand your doubt….”,“I share your
concern…”
This can also be an opportunity to let the customer know that perhaps you felt the same way at
one time. Understanding your customers’ feelings is not just an agreement but an
acknowledgment of the consequences. It is also important that customers not feel patronized
because that would only aggravate the situation. Saying you understand why they feel the way
they do will have to be said in as genuine manner as possible.
One of the most difficult people to deal with is the customer who refuses to think they are wrong
about anything. When you know from the bottom of your heart that someone is wrong about
something, don’t waste your breath in efforts to change this person’s point of view unless it’s
something really serious.

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 On the other hand, if you have made a mistake, handled a situation inappropriately, or
misinformed someone, be sure to admit your mistake and say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” Or,
“You’re right. Thank you for pointing this out to me”. This displays good character. You have to
note that Empathy means always having to say that you are sorry.
However, saying sorry all the time gives the impression that it’s more of an automatic response
than a sincere apology. So it would be better to say your apologies with an acknowledgement of
the mistake and an appropriate plan to correct it. Also find other ways of expressing your
heartfelt apologies without groveling and continually saying this meaningless term.
d. Try to solve the problem
Until now, you have been on the receiving end of the conversation with your customer. You can
begin actively solving the problem by asking questions that help clarify the cause of the
customer’s problem.
As you ask the customers questions, be sure to listen to everything he says, and don’t jump to
conclusions because you may have been through similar situations before, you can easily think
that you already know the answer and miss details that are specific to this customer’s situation.
Gather any additional information you need. Customers sometimes leave out critical information
because they think it is unimportant or they just forget to tell you. When you need specific
information from customer, especially when he is off in another direction, use the bridging
technique. This technique builds a bridge between what the customer is saying and where you
want the conversation to go.
Upset customers rarely present the facts of their story in a neat little package. You may have to
do some detective work to make sure that you understand everything they are telling you. Use
the mirroring technique to summarize your understanding of what the customer says and then
reflect it back to them.
e. Mutually agree on the solution
Once you gather all the facts, you need to work with your customer to come up with an
acceptable solution to the problem. If you haven’t already discovered what will make him happy,
ask. You may at this point find it necessary to take a brief time-out from the customer so that you
can do the behind-scene work necessary to solve the problem. In this case, be sure that the
customer knows exactly why you are asking him to wait and how long it will take for you to get

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back to him. Finally, when both agree on how to resolve the problem, explain the steps that you
will take to implement the solution.
You have to take in to consideration that you do not have to promise what you can’t deliver. Be
honest and realistic when telling the customer what you will do. It is always recommended that
you under promise and over deliver.
f. Follow- up
You can excel your service by following up with your customer through phone, letter or email to
check that the solution worked. If you contact the customer and find out that he or she is not
satisfied with the solution, put out the back stops here, sign and continue to look for another,
more workable solution.
Effective follow up also includes fixing the procedures that are causing the problem to begin
with. By spending time solving internal service delivery problems you prevent them from
occurring in the future.

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 Chapter Six
E- Governance and Public Service Delivery
 What is e-Government?
As governments in developing countries make choices to pursue public administration reforms,
many are using ICTs to offer public services. E-Government is the centerpiece of information
systems-supported reforms to digitalize the delivery of services and the process of governance
occurring across all levels of government. E-Government utilizes the Internet and the World
Wide Web for both service delivery and information dissemination.
E-Government is defined as: the use of information and communication technologies in
government to provide public services to improve managerial effectiveness and to promote
democratic values and mechanisms; as well as a regulatory framework that facilitates
information intensive initiatives and fosters the knowledge of the society.
 Rationale for e-Government
The flow of information is essential for effective governance and managing the day-to-day
business of public service delivery. Government activities are very information intensive. The
production of most government services consists of creating and communicating information.
Every aspect of a person’s public life generates information. Each tax payment, license renewal,
birth, death, marriage, land purchase, and so on generates data that is collected, processed,
stored, communicated, and analyzed by most governments. All of this information is the basic
ingredient for governments to govern, manage its resources, provide public services, and account
for its performance. Information as a valuable national resource provides the public with
knowledge of the government, society, and economy in the past, present, and future. It is a
means to ensure the accountability of government, to manage the government’s operations and to
maintain the healthy performance of the economy and public services.
Public services require information to support internal management, public administration and
regulation, and public services, as well as to make information publicly available. Citizens
expect that governments govern using quality information. Information quality means putting
management systems and controls in place to ensure that information is accurate, relevant,
complete, economical, verifiable, accessible, simple, and secure while delivering public services.
ICTs are the most cost effective means for capturing data from the internal operation of

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 government organizations and for serving citizens. As part of the e-Government approach, ICTs
create opportunities to reduce the costs of providing information and public services to citizens.
 Goals of e-Government
The goals of e-Government vary considerably among governments worldwide. By using ICTs in
this way, governments expect to improve the quality of public services and reduce the costs of
delivering services. Other e-Government goals are to improve the utilization of scarce resources,
enhance accountability and transparency, expand the role of markets, and restore citizen trust and
faith in government.
It is now growing more common for governments to use websites to enable visitors to go online
to get government information, file and pay taxes, register automobiles, access vital records,
communicate with government officials, and participate in decision-making. Through e-
Government, governments are expected to improve performance and outcomes.
Governments expect to achieve such gains as:
 Online data collection to reduce data entry costs and automate error checking;
 Reduce the communication costs with citizens;
 Greater sharing of data within government and between governments and other such
stakeholders as NGO’s, international agencies, and private sector firms;
 Greater re-use of data;
 Reduce government publication and distribution costs through online publication.
 E-service
What is e-service?
The delivery of different services by using ICT and other technologies as a means of delivery is
called electronic service (e-service). E-service is deeds, efforts or performances whose delivery
is mediated by information technology.
Types of e-service
A government through its institution may deliver different types of service. According to MoCIT
(2011), there are two types of public services as indicated below:
I. Informational Services: includes those services that solely provide information to
customers and do not involve processing of any transactions or documents. For example,
providing procedural information for requesting a service/facility and status update of

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 applications for availing services. Informational services have relatively simple back-
office operations and can be easily electronically enabled.
II. Transactional Services: includes those services where customers require specific
actions to be taken by the department. For example, issue of a driving license is a
transactional service. Transactional services mandate a higher degree of customer
interaction and more complex delivery operations than informational services.
Barriers to e-service
Ethiopia is trying to facilitate the penetration of ICTs in to the service sector by designing
policies and strategies. But facts indicated that e-service in Ethiopia is still underdeveloped.
According to the research conducted by Abrham Endalew in 2017, the following barriers are
identified as potential challenges to electronic service delivery in government sector.
Legal/Legislative barriers
 Laws, Regulations, Directives and Policy issues
Administrative/organizational
 Leaders and management support, Weakness in reform implementation, Lack of
partnership and collaboration
Technological/technical barriers
 ICT infrastructure, Suitable tool and Standards, Privacy and security
Social
 User’s culture, Resistance to change to electronic ways, Fear of job loss
Financial
 High Cost of using e-service

Thank you!!!

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