November 28, 2005
Talking back | Consumer complaints cause big headaches for companies
By Taylor Smith
The complaints about Mystery Shop Link LLC have arrived at the Better Business Bureau at a steady pace during the past three years. Some say the Portland-based company reneged on promises to refund money; others call the company out for failing to live up to its promise to provide "mystery shopping" assignments to its customers.
During those 36 months, the company has racked up some 257 complaints from consumers nationwide ˆ the most of any company in the state ˆ with the Better Business Bureau. "The company lied to me in order to get my $99," reads one BBB complaint, "and then did not deliver on their guarantee."
Such complaints are a fact of life for any company in the world of commerce. A quick search through the BBB's online complaint database turns up complaints for even the most reputable companies, showing that no firm is immune when it comes to disgruntled customers. And consumers increasingly have more avenues to vent their frustrations, from Web-based discussion forums to old-line organizations like the BBB. But companies are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to these complaints, largely because they can't control every variable that contributes to a particular customer's happiness or unhappiness.
Take L.L. Bean, for example: The Freeport retailer that's built its reputation on high-quality customer service has resolved 16 consumer complaints filed with the BBB during the past three years. But even though the complaints are something of a chink in the armor of Bean's vaunted customer service record, company spokesperson Rich Donaldson says the number of complaints is relatively minor when compared to the billions of transactions the company handles each year. (Donaldson adds that ideally the company wouldn't have to handle any such complaints.) "It's very difficult to have satisfied customers because so much is outside your control," says Nancy Artz, a professor of marketing at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.
You can't please all the people all the time, but companies have learned that it pays to quickly handle complaints. While it's impossible to quantify how much damage an unsatisfactory rating from the BBB has on a business, most business owners aren't willing to spend enough time at the bottom to find out. "Whether they're a member or not, [a company] should respond to complaints," says Paula Fleming, vice president of communications and marketing for the Better Business Bureau in Natick, Mass., a regional office which serves eastern Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. "It shows that they're putting one foot in front of the other, they're trying to be an ethical company."
Andy Holman, a part owner of Mystery Shop Link, says the two-and-a-half-year-old company has more than 500,000 mystery shoppers ˆ independent contractors posing as shoppers to collect data on such things as customer service ˆ who are sent on tens of thousands of shopping assignments every week. "It's a real organization," says Holman. "We have a lot of transactions and happy customers ˆ far more than complaints."
The tip of the iceberg?
Still, at least 257 consumers have felt wronged enough by Mystery Shop Link to file complaints with the BBB. That means that each one has to be handled by the company. Holman and Larry Murphy, who heads the Ventura, Calif. offices of Mystery Shop Link, stress that the company devotes plenty of resources to cataloging and handling incoming complaints. Of the 257 complaints listed by the BBB, Mystery Shop Link has resolved or made every reasonable effort to resolve 226 of those complaints, according to the BBB's reliability report on the company. (Thirty complaints remain unresolved, meaning that the company's response was unacceptable to the consumer, and one complaint is listed as receiving no response from the company.)
Fleming says the BBB has spent "days worth" of time working with Mystery Shop Link to resolve consumer complaints. And Holman says the company in recent months has worked internally to prevent such complaints in the future, from simplifying the online training for new customers to expanding its customer service group and streamlining the process of handling consumer gripes. "Typically, any time we have a customer that complains and goes to that length, we give them whatever they want, a refund or whatever they're saying they need," he says.
Still, there's a question as to whether consumers at large actually pay attention to BBB complaint records. Artz of USM says not all consumers are familiar enough with the BBB ˆ and its voluminous archives of complaints ˆ to use it as a resource. "I think there are still many consumers that aren't aware that there is a Better Business Bureau that collects complaints," she says. "And of those that are aware, many don't know which companies there have been complaints about."
Meanwhile, the size of a company's customer base also plays a big part in how many complaints it might receive. Conventional wisdom holds that the larger the company, the more complaints are bound to roll in. Murphy estimates that Mystery Shop Link has more than 500,000 customers, who pay as much as $99 a year to receive assignments to mystery shop at places like coffee shops and big-box stores. So those 257 complaints during the last 36 months work out to only about one-tenth of one percent of the company's customers.
However, those 257 complaints could just as easily be the tip of the iceberg, representing just a fraction of what could be thousands of disgruntled consumers. "It's well known that every complaint the company receives is a very small minority, and [represents] one percent or three percent of the number of dissatisfied customers out there," says Nancy Artz.
But Artz also says that consumer complaints more often than not aren't the fault of the company. She says a rule of thumb passed down in the world of marketing and consumer behavior says that two-thirds of all consumer dissatisfaction is due to the consumer, whether he botches directions or fails to read the fine print. "Companies always have legends," she says. "There's the L.L. Bean story about someone installing a wood-burning stove in an apartment without a flue. They didn't follow directions, but from a consumer's point of view, it doesn't matter if it's their fault. They say they should have been warned."
Along the same lines, Holman and Murphy say that many of the complaints against Mystery Shop Link are from consumers who had untenable expectations for the company. "An inherent problem is that people are calling looking for a quick fix for an income problem," says Holman. "When they realize that there's work involved, they hit the pavement and they're unhappy about it. It's an unfortunate truth."
During those 36 months, the company has racked up some 257 complaints from consumers nationwide ˆ the most of any company in the state ˆ with the Better Business Bureau. "The company lied to me in order to get my $99," reads one BBB complaint, "and then did not deliver on their guarantee."
Such complaints are a fact of life for any company in the world of commerce. A quick search through the BBB's online complaint database turns up complaints for even the most reputable companies, showing that no firm is immune when it comes to disgruntled customers. And consumers increasingly have more avenues to vent their frustrations, from Web-based discussion forums to old-line organizations like the BBB. But companies are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to these complaints, largely because they can't control every variable that contributes to a particular customer's happiness or unhappiness.
Take L.L. Bean, for example: The Freeport retailer that's built its reputation on high-quality customer service has resolved 16 consumer complaints filed with the BBB during the past three years. But even though the complaints are something of a chink in the armor of Bean's vaunted customer service record, company spokesperson Rich Donaldson says the number of complaints is relatively minor when compared to the billions of transactions the company handles each year. (Donaldson adds that ideally the company wouldn't have to handle any such complaints.) "It's very difficult to have satisfied customers because so much is outside your control," says Nancy Artz, a professor of marketing at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.
You can't please all the people all the time, but companies have learned that it pays to quickly handle complaints. While it's impossible to quantify how much damage an unsatisfactory rating from the BBB has on a business, most business owners aren't willing to spend enough time at the bottom to find out. "Whether they're a member or not, [a company] should respond to complaints," says Paula Fleming, vice president of communications and marketing for the Better Business Bureau in Natick, Mass., a regional office which serves eastern Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. "It shows that they're putting one foot in front of the other, they're trying to be an ethical company."
Andy Holman, a part owner of Mystery Shop Link, says the two-and-a-half-year-old company has more than 500,000 mystery shoppers ˆ independent contractors posing as shoppers to collect data on such things as customer service ˆ who are sent on tens of thousands of shopping assignments every week. "It's a real organization," says Holman. "We have a lot of transactions and happy customers ˆ far more than complaints."
The tip of the iceberg?
Still, at least 257 consumers have felt wronged enough by Mystery Shop Link to file complaints with the BBB. That means that each one has to be handled by the company. Holman and Larry Murphy, who heads the Ventura, Calif. offices of Mystery Shop Link, stress that the company devotes plenty of resources to cataloging and handling incoming complaints. Of the 257 complaints listed by the BBB, Mystery Shop Link has resolved or made every reasonable effort to resolve 226 of those complaints, according to the BBB's reliability report on the company. (Thirty complaints remain unresolved, meaning that the company's response was unacceptable to the consumer, and one complaint is listed as receiving no response from the company.)
Fleming says the BBB has spent "days worth" of time working with Mystery Shop Link to resolve consumer complaints. And Holman says the company in recent months has worked internally to prevent such complaints in the future, from simplifying the online training for new customers to expanding its customer service group and streamlining the process of handling consumer gripes. "Typically, any time we have a customer that complains and goes to that length, we give them whatever they want, a refund or whatever they're saying they need," he says.
Still, there's a question as to whether consumers at large actually pay attention to BBB complaint records. Artz of USM says not all consumers are familiar enough with the BBB ˆ and its voluminous archives of complaints ˆ to use it as a resource. "I think there are still many consumers that aren't aware that there is a Better Business Bureau that collects complaints," she says. "And of those that are aware, many don't know which companies there have been complaints about."
Meanwhile, the size of a company's customer base also plays a big part in how many complaints it might receive. Conventional wisdom holds that the larger the company, the more complaints are bound to roll in. Murphy estimates that Mystery Shop Link has more than 500,000 customers, who pay as much as $99 a year to receive assignments to mystery shop at places like coffee shops and big-box stores. So those 257 complaints during the last 36 months work out to only about one-tenth of one percent of the company's customers.
However, those 257 complaints could just as easily be the tip of the iceberg, representing just a fraction of what could be thousands of disgruntled consumers. "It's well known that every complaint the company receives is a very small minority, and [represents] one percent or three percent of the number of dissatisfied customers out there," says Nancy Artz.
But Artz also says that consumer complaints more often than not aren't the fault of the company. She says a rule of thumb passed down in the world of marketing and consumer behavior says that two-thirds of all consumer dissatisfaction is due to the consumer, whether he botches directions or fails to read the fine print. "Companies always have legends," she says. "There's the L.L. Bean story about someone installing a wood-burning stove in an apartment without a flue. They didn't follow directions, but from a consumer's point of view, it doesn't matter if it's their fault. They say they should have been warned."
Along the same lines, Holman and Murphy say that many of the complaints against Mystery Shop Link are from consumers who had untenable expectations for the company. "An inherent problem is that people are calling looking for a quick fix for an income problem," says Holman. "When they realize that there's work involved, they hit the pavement and they're unhappy about it. It's an unfortunate truth."
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