AUTHOR
Bonde, Susanne; Mella, Maja

DATE
2000-01-24

DEPARTMENT
Business Administration and Social Sciences / Industrial Marketing

SUMMARY
The Internet as business channel has grown during the recent years. With the increasing number of companies and customers online it is important to study how these companies act in complaint handling. The research problem of this thesis is to study how online-companies handle customer complaints in order to improve customer relations. Four case studies of online-companies were conducted and multiple sources, namely documentation, participant-observation, and interviews were used for collecting data.

Our findings show that different methods are used to encourage customers to complain, and e-mail is used as the main channel for customer interaction. Most complaints concern deliveries and faulty goods. Frontline personnel solve most of the complaints, which are handled quickly. The complaint strategies concern how the personnel act towards the customer. Customer relations are improved by encouraging customers to complain, give monetary compensation, providing superb service, and by handling complaints personally.

ISSN 1404-5508 / ISRN LTU-SHU-EX--00/020--SE / NR 2000:020