What Impact Does an "Unresolved" Complaint Have?

When a consumer shares an experience in the Complaints Book and makes a complaint, they go through an approval process. This process can be automatic or manual, it depends on several factors.

Once approved and sent to the brand, the complaint assumes the status of "awaiting response". When the brand responds to the consumer, it can assume three states: "being dealt with", "resolved" or "unresolved".

"Being dealt with" means that the brand has started the process of analyzing the complaint. In this process, the brand may post a standard response to the customer and request further information. 

"Resolved" means that an answer has been given to the complaint and it is up to the consumer to accept this status or reopen the process. On the brand's part, it is assumed that it has done everything possible and necessary to find a solution to the problem presented.

The status of "unresolved" indicates that one party, consumer or brand, has considered the complaint process to be concluded and disagrees with the other party.
There will be cases where the "unresolved" status is the only possibility. However, we always suggest that brands try to resolve complaints and conclude them with a "resolved" status. Closing a complaint with the status of "unresolved" will impact the Satisfaction Index of the brand.

The Satisfaction Index is composed of a formula that considers all four types of complaint status. However, one of its metrics, the SR (Solution Rate = No. of complaints resolved / Total for the Period Considered), has a weight of 50% in the final calculation.

In some studies we have conducted, brands that converted at least 50% of their complaints to "resolved" status increased about 5 points in their Satisfaction Index.

This increase, we emphasize again, in some cases could represent an increase of a few places in the ranking or even leadership in their category.

We understand that it is not easy to manage some of the complaints. In many cases, we are managing customer expectations, but it is important to reassess how you manage your brand's presence in the Complaints Book. Try not only to respond to a complaint and provide a solution for a successful closure of complaints. The consumer will be grateful to you, we will be happy to witness success stories and other consumers will value your efforts.