The last six weeks at the getclosure! office have certainly been the most interesting. In October there was a 35% increase in the number of complaints that were delivered. This coupled with the ever-increasing number of visitors to the website, indicates that the awareness of getclosure! is spreading across the country.

getclosure! has now reached a point where enough formal customer feedback has been collected to start writing and publishing reliable articles surrounding customer centricity and customer service in South Africa. These articles are published in the news section on www.getclosure.co.za and are definitely worth reading; in particular have a look at getclosure! Measures Customer Centricity and Industry Leaders in Customer Service.

The getclosure! ratings also provide independent insight into how customer-centric South African suppliers really are. In addition to this, the ratings offer South African consumers a reliable benchmark to compare suppliers against before making a purchasing decision.

Perhaps the most interesting discovery of the last six weeks is the reason why South African consumers are using the getclosure! service to submit their complaints. I collected data from 244 consumers complaining about 22 suppliers over a seven-week period and put together the pie chart below:

This pie chart is significant for various reasons. It illustrates that too many consumers are using formal channels to complain and are not getting a response – 34% is too high and suppliers need to address this concern. It also illustrates that customer care agents within supplier organisations are not as effective as they should be. 50% of the consumers stated that when they used the formal channels to lodge their complaint they were passed from pillar to post and ultimately did not receive resolution. Perhaps suppliers should introduce a system whereby customer care agents are encouraged to take responsibility for the complaint and see the complaint through to resolution.

In my opinion, the most significant finding is that South African consumers are not as complacent as everybody may think. South African consumers are using the internet to search for alternative means to submit their complaints and are choosing how they wish to complain. South African suppliers are encouraged to listen to their customers because if they don’t, someone else will.

Richard is the sales and marketing manager of getclosure! He has played a significant role in getting the initiative off the ground and manages the day to day operations of getclosure! Click here to read more about Richard.