‘Encourage complaints’ to boost donors’ trust, charities told
Howard Lake | 25 February 2015 | News
Brands should not only make it easier for consumers to complain about their marketing, but they should even encourage them to do so. According to research by the global consumer trends and insight agency Future Foundation, supported by the DMA and the Fundraising Standards Board, this will build trust and gain insight that will help improve their marketing effectiveness.
The new research was published today in the report Bringing complaints in from the cold: exploring the role of complaints for the future of one-to-one marketing. It reveals that, although 65% of the UK public have “had an issue with one-to-one marketing communications” they received in the past year, just 16% have made a formal complaint.
Complaints by channel
Telemarketing attracted the most formal complaints, with doorstep approaches the least.
• telemarketing – 36% of consumers who responded
• marketing email – 13%
• advertising mail – 12%
• approach on the street – 12%
• marketing text – 11%
• doorstep approach – 10%
Where are complaints directed?
The research found that the majority (54%) of complaints are made to the brand responsible for making the one-to-one marketing contact. The rest are made to industry regulators, such as the ICO, Direct Marketing Commission, Fundraising Standards Board and Ofcom, or to suppression organisations like the Telephone Preference Service and Mailing Preference Service.
However, just 17% of those consumers who have made complaints said that they were satisfied with the outcome.
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Complaints spread by social media
Many consumers are not confident that making a complaint will achieve much. Of the 55% of consumers who have never made a complaint, 34% said that this was because they “didn’t think that it would make any difference”, 30% said they didn’t know who to complain to, 19% said they didn’t know how to complain and 13% said they regarded the complaints process to be “too much hassle”.
However, consumers and donors do not hold back with sharing their experiences online. The research found that 76% of people that did complain shared their experience with others and 54% did so online.
Good complaint handling also gets shared online: 30% of satisfied complainants posted about their experience online compared with 23% of dissatisfied complainants.
The report’s author argues that monitoring social media for comments from customers and donors could prove a valuable ‘early warning system’ for them.
Complaining isn’t easy
According to the research, just 31% of people who did complain found the process to be “easy”. Yet complaints can provide valuable insight from donors and supporters.
Alistair McLean, chief executive of the Fundraising Standards Board, commented:
“One-to-one marketing techniques are often the most effective ways for charities to raise funds and engage supporters, but charities could benefit by encouraging more feedback from the public. Positive or negative, all consumer feedback is a valuable source of insight that can help inform future fundraising campaigns.”
The report’s author, Nick Chiarelli, director of Future Foundation, added:
“Brands have long understood the power of good complaints handling to build better relationships with their customers. People are now sharing their positive experiences with their social networks. To build greater consumer trust brands should encourage consumers to complain. This will certainly be of mutual benefit to brands and to consumers.”
The report is based on a survey of public attitudes to marketing communications, completed by 2,003 UK adults in September 2014.
Photo: complaints file by Zerbor on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.