A survey on e-complaints: the case of Turkish Airlines

Abstract

Handling of complaints in airline companies that take customer satisfaction into consideration has a significant impact on customer retention. Customer complaints provide great opportunities for detecting and eliminating weaknesses, and for preventing similar problems. Thus, the airline companies should pay attention to customer complaints in order to improve themselves, increase their profits, and to provide continuity. Within this context, the online complaints made between February 2018 and February 2019 regarding Turkish Airlines in the most-visited customer complaint website in Turkey, ‘www.sikayetvar.com’, were reviewed in this study, and it was aimed to determine the most common subjects of complaint. The complaints were evaluated through one of the qualitative research methods, content analysis. The complaints were categorized, and the most common subjects of customer complaints were determined. This study aims at showing the types of weaknesses in services offered by Turkish Airlines Company. The most common subjects of complaint were found to be damaged and lost luggage, Turkish Airlines loyalty card; Miles and Smiles card, delays, and ticket refunds. At the end of this study, suggestions were made for Turkish Airlines and the literature.