Abstract:

This study aims to explore the concept of customer complaint behaviour with a view to establishing relationship between handling customer complaints, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to investigate customer complaint behaviour among retailers in four supermarkets in Kampala, Uganda. Findings show that there is a need for customer complaints to be handled by competent and service-minded staff. Issues such as lack of courtesy and professionalism characterize the retail sector in Uganda. Concluded that complaints should be handled quickly, and feedback on complaint handling process should be encouraged by management in order to use the feedback as starting point for improving future complaint management. A major managerial implication is that organizations should pay attention to failure attribution, and that providing detailed explanation may be an effective organizational response that will have an impact on behavioural aspects of brand loyalty.