I'm a good girl today *dry laughs* After dinner, I sat in front of the TV and *drum rolls* read the newspaper!
Anyways, I came across this article in ST. Read about it here. I think it's only available for a week. After that, payment is required. Geez.
Apparently, only 6% of Singaporeans are willing to lodge a formal, proper complaint while the rest prefer to whine or complain privately. What are the reasons behind this?
Is it because we have very little consumer rights? We are too lazy to complain? We are non-confrontation in general? We are nice people? OR! Have we learnt our lesson and know that complaining don't work?
Personally, I think it's because of a combination of reasons. Mainly -
1. We feel that complaining doesn't work. So why bother?
Sometimes, complaining really doesn't work. I have been in the service industry and have also worked in one government agency.
When we receive a complain or "suggestion" from say, a caller, we record it down on any piece of paper that we can find and then pass it on to our supervisors who will proceed to stash that piece of paper somewhere and then promptly forget about it.
That was the government agency.
In the company I worked for, I guess complains does work to a certain extent. Especially since we are such a small company. Complains received are reported to HQ and then it will be mentioned in the next staff meeting. That's about it.
2. The Social Stigma Associated with "Complaining".
What do you think of when someone says, "I want to complain!"?
I am pretty sure it's something negative. Possible thoughts that crosses your mind, "She's such a complaint queen", "She's a difficult customers" and "Wah lao eh!".
Complaining has been given a bad name. By people who abuses it and complain about every little thing that irritates them. Hence, we tend to place a negative tag on people who complain. We view complaining as bad.
And let's face it. We are pretty affected by how people look at us. Social stigma is actually preventing people from giving up seats in trains (according to my AB213 research)!
3. Anonymity
I guess more people will be willing to complain if anonymity is guaranteed? Like you don't have to do it face to face? It kind of helps remove the social stigma associated with complaining and let's face it, not everyone dares to march up to the counter, take a form and fill it in.
Social desirability bias? Demand characteristics? And all that might set in.
Perhaps, it could be done online?
So yeah.
Of course, we need to differentiate between a good quality complaint and a random, stupid complaint.
A good quality complaint will briefly describe what happened, what are the things he/she feels that needs to improve, what are the things that the company/person is doing nicely, some feedback and suggestions.
A random, stupid complaint will be emotionally charged ("You are the worst shop in the ENTIRE universe!"), ranting about everything and anything, threatening and expects compensation ("Give me my money back!").
Personally, I do complain. Oh no, am I going to be labelled? Hahas. Nono. I don't complain just for complain sake. I have probably like done it 3 times? Once to MacDonalds (rude staff who took the wrong order and yelled at me before walking off), BK at Changi and SBS (accuse me of not tapping my EZ-link. Yell at me and when it showed that I tapped, didn't apologise and continue to yell at me).
But of course, I am a chicken! I went to their website to complain. Hahas. Oh wells.
I praise good service as well, okay?! (:
I don't know. As a service staff myself, I have rather high standards/requirements for service. But at the same time, I am more tolerant of lousy services?
Anyways, why are we making a big fuss about the low percent of people who complain ah? *maniac laughter* Do you realised I just went on and on and on about a topic without knowing the real reason why we are trying to increase the number of complaints?
Okay, last paragraph in the article -
"The Government should do much more to promote good service and consumer rights. If it can do this, we can make Singapore into a more successful country."
Erm...More complaints = Better service standard??
What do you think? Why are the complaint rate so low in Singapore? Do you complain or are you just whining?(:
Anyways, I came across this article in ST. Read about it here. I think it's only available for a week. After that, payment is required. Geez.
Apparently, only 6% of Singaporeans are willing to lodge a formal, proper complaint while the rest prefer to whine or complain privately. What are the reasons behind this?
Is it because we have very little consumer rights? We are too lazy to complain? We are non-confrontation in general? We are nice people? OR! Have we learnt our lesson and know that complaining don't work?
Personally, I think it's because of a combination of reasons. Mainly -
1. We feel that complaining doesn't work. So why bother?
Sometimes, complaining really doesn't work. I have been in the service industry and have also worked in one government agency.
When we receive a complain or "suggestion" from say, a caller, we record it down on any piece of paper that we can find and then pass it on to our supervisors who will proceed to stash that piece of paper somewhere and then promptly forget about it.
That was the government agency.
In the company I worked for, I guess complains does work to a certain extent. Especially since we are such a small company. Complains received are reported to HQ and then it will be mentioned in the next staff meeting. That's about it.
2. The Social Stigma Associated with "Complaining".
What do you think of when someone says, "I want to complain!"?
I am pretty sure it's something negative. Possible thoughts that crosses your mind, "She's such a complaint queen", "She's a difficult customers" and "Wah lao eh!".
Complaining has been given a bad name. By people who abuses it and complain about every little thing that irritates them. Hence, we tend to place a negative tag on people who complain. We view complaining as bad.
And let's face it. We are pretty affected by how people look at us. Social stigma is actually preventing people from giving up seats in trains (according to my AB213 research)!
3. Anonymity
I guess more people will be willing to complain if anonymity is guaranteed? Like you don't have to do it face to face? It kind of helps remove the social stigma associated with complaining and let's face it, not everyone dares to march up to the counter, take a form and fill it in.
Social desirability bias? Demand characteristics? And all that might set in.
Perhaps, it could be done online?
So yeah.
Of course, we need to differentiate between a good quality complaint and a random, stupid complaint.
A good quality complaint will briefly describe what happened, what are the things he/she feels that needs to improve, what are the things that the company/person is doing nicely, some feedback and suggestions.
A random, stupid complaint will be emotionally charged ("You are the worst shop in the ENTIRE universe!"), ranting about everything and anything, threatening and expects compensation ("Give me my money back!").
Personally, I do complain. Oh no, am I going to be labelled? Hahas. Nono. I don't complain just for complain sake. I have probably like done it 3 times? Once to MacDonalds (rude staff who took the wrong order and yelled at me before walking off), BK at Changi and SBS (accuse me of not tapping my EZ-link. Yell at me and when it showed that I tapped, didn't apologise and continue to yell at me).
But of course, I am a chicken! I went to their website to complain. Hahas. Oh wells.
I praise good service as well, okay?! (:
I don't know. As a service staff myself, I have rather high standards/requirements for service. But at the same time, I am more tolerant of lousy services?
Anyways, why are we making a big fuss about the low percent of people who complain ah? *maniac laughter* Do you realised I just went on and on and on about a topic without knowing the real reason why we are trying to increase the number of complaints?
Okay, last paragraph in the article -
"The Government should do much more to promote good service and consumer rights. If it can do this, we can make Singapore into a more successful country."
Erm...More complaints = Better service standard??
What do you think? Why are the complaint rate so low in Singapore? Do you complain or are you just whining?(:
No comments:
Post a Comment