ASSESSING THE CUSTOMER COMPLAIN HANDLING STRATEGY OF COMMERCIAL BANK OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The study sought to assess the effectiveness of customer complaint handling procedures at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. the general objective of the study was to examine major areas of customer complain in the past 3 years and try to see the bank’s mechanism and effectiveness of the bank’s customer complain handling strategy. This study was conducted using a descriptive research design. A respondent sample of 100 respondents from selected branches of the bank was sampled to respond to the data collection instrument. The study employed accidental sampling technique. Data was collected through questionnaires. Findings showed that most complainants have made complaints just once or twice predominantly about automatic teller machine (ATM) failures and delay in service delivery at the bank due to poor internet connection. The study showed that the reactions of most customer complainants were mostly an expression of disappointment, negative perceptions about the bank, telling other people about their complainants and having an overall mindset of negativity against the bank. Finally the finding shows that majority of customers were dissatisfied with the bank’s complaints handling practice. Based on the findings, the study recommended that management of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia to integrate a complaint mechanism / button into the ATM machines to enhance complaint taking and a two stage complain management system is to deal with customer complaints.