Klovienė, Daiva

Appearance of complaints as a phenomenon and their effect on the activity of enterprises became an important object of research in the 1970‘s. A complaint is a written expression of dissatisfaction presented by a plaintiff which points out violation of personal rights or legitimate interests relating to services provided by the enterprise or contracts concluded and demanding to uphold plaintiff’s claims (Finasta, 2016). Having analysed the origins of complaints, theorists have concluded that successful complaint management is one of the most important guarantors of company‘s success. For this reason, companies started to treat complaint management as a strategic tool to become aware of unknown features of their own products and services. Companies realized that complaints are not some kind of nuisance or a problem requiring expenditure, but a real asset in the market. A complaint is an important way to manage organization in which clients require to review company‘s activity or behaviour of staff in that organization (Ombudsman Western Australia, 2017). For a business not to go bust, it is advisable to implement complaint management models that strive to satisfy customers’ needs and create their satisfaction with company’s work. It is vital that clients decide to express their dissatisfaction and companies or institutions are able to react to and handle complaints in good time. Otherwise, dissatisfaction may be expressed to other clients or, what is worse, to company’s competitors. Thus, a research problem is given in a question form: what should the elements of the complaint management model be so that they ensure continuous satisfaction in relations between lecturers and students?

This article addresses the problematic of complaint management as a strategic tool to awaken businesses which are not capable of satisfying consumers’ needs. To investigate this issue theoretical research is used. Authors of this article analyse theoretical insights of both foreign and Lithuanian authors. The research looks into the views various management representatives and researchers have on the essence and topicality of the complaint management concept and methods of forming complaint management. Finally, a theoretical conceptual model of complaint management is formed.