Customer Complaints and Surliness on the Rise, Survey Finds 

A new survey shows Americans are experiencing more product and service problems than ever before and have become steadily more belligerent when they complain. The National Customer Rage Survey estimates U.S. businesses are risking $887 billion in future revenue due to mediocre handling of customers’ complaints, up from $494 billion in 2020. 

The survey, which has been tracking consumer satisfaction over the complaint-handling process since 2003, broke new ground this year by also exploring customer uncivility, the growing phenomenon of rude, discourteous, and sometimes violent customer behavior. 

Findings include: 

• 74% of customers reported experiencing a product or service problem in the past year, more than doubling since 1976. 
• 56% of customers felt that the problem had wasted their time, 43% cited a loss of money (an average loss of $1,261), and 31% suffered emotional distress. 
• The level of “customer rage” is holding steady — 63%. 
• 43% of customers raised their voice to show displeasure, an increase from 35% in 2015. 
• 50% of customers use digital channels such as email, chat, and social media instead of the telephone to complain, up from 5% in 2013. In addition to complaining directly to the company, 32% also posted their problem on social media sites, more than twice as many as did in 2020. 
• Nearly 1 in 5 Americans (17%) have personally behaved uncivilly during the past year. 

The social contract about the norms for individually protesting businesses’ belief systems and values appears to be in flux. Americans disagree with “civil” and “uncivil” behaviors for expressing their value differences with a business. While 50% of Americans view less aggressive forms of behavior (such as yelling, ranting, arguing, giving ultimatums, and social media character assassination) as uncivil, the remaining 50% see these behaviors as either “civil” or as “depends on the circumstances.” 

This independent study of 1,000 respondents was conducted by Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC) in collaboration with the Center for Services Leadership, a research center within the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.  

It is based on a survey conducted initially by the customer experience organization TARP for the White House in 1976. CCMC and the Center for Services Leadership have collaborated on the survey since 2003.