[Economic Observation] What does the disclosure of consumer complaint information mean to operators?
Our reporter Yang Zhaokui
Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice to launch a pilot program of publicizing consumer complaint information in Jilin, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Xinjiang.
At the same time, the Consumer Complaint Information Publicity System of the Consumer Protection Committee of Jiangsu Province was officially launched on November 16. It is the first provincial consumer complaint information publicity system.
Publicity of consumer complaint information means that market supervision departments and consumer associations disclose relevant information on handling consumer complaints in accordance with the law for the public to inquire and browse.
During the pilot phase, the public information mainly includes the complainant, the respondent, the time of the complaint, the problem of the complaint, the result of the complaint, and the handling department, and is automatically sorted by the system according to time and region for public inquiries.
In the opinion of experts, consumer complaint information disclosure is not only a part of market information disclosure, but also a key link in the consumption link. It can play an important role in improving the social credit evaluation mechanism, promoting corporate integrity and law-abiding operations, and protecting consumers' rights and interests.
According to the statistics of complaints accepted by the National Consumers Association released by the China Consumers Association in August this year, in the first half of this year, the National Consumers Association received a total of 551,780 consumer complaints, a year-on-year increase of 5.71%, and consumer complaints are generally on the rise.
However, for some operators, they are not afraid of consumer complaints.
Because after consumers complain, the relevant departments or consumer associations mainly solve the problem through mediation, interviews, etc., and the operator will at best compensate consumers for their losses.
Therefore, this has also caused some operators to fail to implement the main responsibility of consumer rights protection, making it difficult for consumers' legitimate rights and interests to be protected in a timely and effective manner.
Although some operators are not afraid of complaints, they are afraid of publicity.
The consumer complaint publicity system is equivalent to an exposure platform. After those operators with a high complaint rate are made public, they will not only bear the pressure of public opinion and government supervision, but also bear the risk of consumers voting with their feet and causing their market share to decline.
These triple pressures will make some operators feel "overwhelming pressure", thus forcing them to implement the main responsibility of consumer rights protection, operate with integrity, and then open up the post-event relief and pre-prevention links of consumer rights protection to resolve or reduce consumer disputes.
In addition, the publicity of consumer complaint information can also provide consumers with convenient and accessible consumer evaluation information, allowing them to quickly understand the number of complaints and complaint resolution rates of operators, thereby reducing the asymmetry of consumer information and further ensuring consumers' knowledge rights and options.
From this perspective, this move can also achieve survival of the fittest, allowing honest and law-abiding operators to win more room for development, thereby optimizing the consumption environment and enhancing consumer confidence.
Of course, one end of consumption is connected to consumers, and the other end is connected to operators. Therefore, while protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, the rights of operators should also be respected.
The relevant person in charge of the Consumer Protection Committee of Jiangsu Province stated that it will strictly control every link of the collection, integration and publicity of consumer complaint data. Consider and respect the management rights of operators.
The notice issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation also pointed out that if consumers or operators believe that the publicized information is wrong, they can apply to the publicity department for review.
It should be pointed out that publicity is not a "blacklist". Those operators with high market share tend to have more consumer disputes objectively. Therefore, the number of complaints cannot be simply used as a criterion for judging whether a company is honest or not.
In fact, if the operator pays attention to the reasonable demands of consumers through the consumer complaint publicity system and solves the problems that arise, it will help maintain their own image.
From this perspective, the publicity of consumer complaint information is both a supervision and an incentive for operators.