One Size Does Not Fit All

Complaints arise when expectations are not met. Expectations of service levels are
therefore so are perceptions of service failures. Multinational companies tend to have
one standard way of handling complaints. Is this really suitable for customers from
diverse markets?

Better local knowledge and awareness of cultural values are needed – because culture
affects the behaviour and preferences of customers. As markets become more
diverse, so do customers.

Generica is a manufacturer of plastic raw materials. These plastic raw materials are
used for food packaging. The plastic raw material business is dominated by global
multinationals such as BASF, Dow, Ineos and Total Petrochemicals. All these
companies have factories worldwide and sell to customers in diverse markets. Plastic
packaging is a huge business, as basic food products (such as yoghurt) depend on
plastic packaging to get products into the supermarkets for consumers. These
multinationals recently participated in an Industry Benchmarking survey for customer
satisfaction (June 2009). The results of the survey show that customers in Turkey were
the least satisfied with service levels in particular with complaints resolution. This is
not good news, as Turkey is an important, emerging market for these multinationals.

Yilzin is one of Generica’s customers in Turkey. He purchases plastic raw materials

from Generica to make packaging for yoghurt.

Trouble in Turkey – Customer Complaint

"Mr Yilzin come quickly, we have a problem!" Mr Yilzin was surprised to receive a
phone call from the production manager of his factory. It was 11 o’clock in the evening,
and he had just finished brushing his teeth "Calm down, Mehmet Bey, tell me slowly
what is wrong". The production manager explained to Mr Yilzin that they will not be
able to deliver the 30,000 plastic cups of yoghurt to the supermarkets tomorrow as
planned. "This is terrible! Is there something wrong with the yoghurt?! "asked Mr Yilzin
completely alarmed. "No, no, no, Mr Yilzin, the yoghurt is fine, but the packaging
materials are creating a problem!" said Mehmet. "The cups are not hard enough, and
every single cup we have produced in the last hour is collapsing after filling. We can’t
stack them; we can’t even move them off the production line! I’ve had to stop
production. We have 10,000 kilos of yoghurt in bad packaging, which is creating a
huge mess on the factory floor. We have to contact our plastics supplier immediately.
Something has changed in the quality of what they normally supply us!"

Mr Yilzin drove to his factory immediately to assess the situation for himself. He
contacted Generica’s global helpdesk. A young American customer service rep
informed him that his plastic raw materials came from Generica’s factory in the
Netherlands. She cheerfully informed him that he would be financially compensated if
his complaint was justified. She transferred his call. A young Dutch lady answered the
telephone, "Hoi, goedemorgen, my name is Albertina Van der Heijden, how can I help
you?" She listened to his complaint and simply asked, "OK, would you like to fill out a
complaints form?”

He was shocked by the casual responses of both people he had dealt with so far. At
this stage, he was becoming furious. "Listen, Miss Van der Heijden, I need
replacement material immediately. My factory is at a standstill. I need to speak to your
manager." She was shocked and offended. "Mr Yilzin, it is no use speaking to the
manager. I am the person in charge of your complaint." She took a deep breath and
calmed herself down. "Please understand, replacement materials can only be
delivered to you if an official complaint is logged in the system. Without this, it is not
possible. I need your help to get these complaints form filled in. Only then can we can
investigate the problem and compensate you accordingly. I will not and can not
arrange delivery of replacement materials without this "she replied with confidence
and authority.

Two hours later Mr Yilzin had logged his complaint using the official complaints form.
It struck him how the complaints form was oriented towards « user related » problems
and the complicated scales of compensation claimed. Only at the end of the form, did
he find a small space to detail his observations about the quality of the material he
was supplied. In summary, his impression was that the complaints form was designed
to deal with aspects of liability and financial compensation, not quality issues.

In the end, Mr Yilzin was financially compensated for the loss of production, new
material was delivered. What went wrong? The conclusion of the investigation was
that it was a combination of both supplier and consumer miscommunication that
caused the production issue.

Generica's post-complaint report

The plastic raw materials which he had been buying from Generica were not suitable
for the larger pack size he was now producing.

1. Technical reasons: the larger packaging could not cool in time before it was filled
with yoghurt. Generica, as his supplier is partly responsible.

2. Root Cause: the order specification form was poorly translated. The product specs
stated in the local language that « greater volume » could be produced if desired–
meaning more parts per/hour if he chose to run his machines at a higher speed. (Not
larger parts).
3. User issue: Yilzin continued to order the same specs as he understood « greater
volume » to mean larger cups were possible (not faster production of the smaller size
yoghurt cups he was previously producing). We have no idea why he wants to make
such a large pack size outside of standard specs. He should have checked with our
technical department when he changed parameters of his production.

4. Compensation: €40,000 Eur to be paid for lost production. Case closed.

Well not quite...... At least not for the customer.

Yilzin's post-complaint report : Complaints resolution - One Size Fits All?

Is this simply a linguistic issue? No, the first issue is local market knowledge. Mr Yilzin
wanted to make a larger pack size, as Turkish consumers use yoghurt to make soup
(not just desserts). Yoghurt soup is a very popular comfort dish in Turkey. It is known
as Yayla Corbasi. Turkish consumers find the traditional European pack size
somewhat inconvenient for their local habits.

Although the problem was identified and "resolved" from an objective point of view, Mr
Yilzin was not satisfied with how Generica resolved his problem. He was still unhappy
despite the generous financial compensation he received. Why? From Mr Yilzin’s
perspective, the "communication" problem was not about getting the "linguistics" right,
but the "relational" aspects right. Do cultural preferences exist for complaints
resolution?