A Relationship Marketing Perspective of Complaint Satisfaction in Services Settings: Empirical Findings

Three alternative conceptualizations of the complaint satisfaction construct are developed from a review of the literature. These alternative conceptualizations are then tested empirically using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with data generated from a survey of some 2,000 complainants of a German passenger service company. Two of the three alternative conceptualizations of complaint satisfaction are shown to adequately represent the construct’s structure. In addition, the results underline the importance of customer-oriented complaint handling for relationship marketing success, since complaint satisfaction is shown to strongly influence the customer’s degree of overall satisfaction with the service provider’s offerings. Implications and insights for more effective management and handling of customer complaints and for future research in this area are also discussed.