The use of semantic network analysis to manage customer complaints

Effective handling of customer complaints is obviously in the consumers’ interest, but analysis of the letters can also provide valuable information to the organization. Organizations can use customer complaints as a way of recording organizational information and tracking effectiveness of their consumer relationship management. In this paper, we argue that organizations should adopt the use of semantic network analysis as an efficient and effective means to track complaints ‐ and what customers are complaining about ‐ over time. We present an example of the use of semantic network analysis with the complete texts of all complaint letters sent to an organization during a one‐year period. The semantic network analysis of the text of the complaint letters identifies the central concerns of this customer group and suggests that the organization address these issues. Through the use of semantic network analysis, an organization can uncover trends and provide support for decision‐making regarding customer relationship management issues.