Useful Complaints

This book develops an informational theory to account for the coexistence of China’s exceptionally resilient authoritarianism and its high decentralization. The nuanced information contained in citizens’ complaints, which are filed through the petition system, helps to sustain China’s decentralized authoritarianism in three important ways. First, petitions help to alleviate the information asymmetry problem that arises when the central government has less information than lower level governments do. When studying citizens’ petitions, higher level governments can obtain valuable and accurate information about local officials’ performance in policy implementation, public goods provision, and corruption. Higher level governments need this information in order to effectively utilize the cadre management system to reward good performance and punish malpractice. The result of this interaction is the PRC’s relatively high quality of governance and effective control of local officials. There is also a second way in which citizens’ petitions help the government to overcome the dictator’s dilemma that arises when an authoritarian regime is uncertain about how much support it really enjoys among its citizens. Citizens’ specific grievances are revealed in these petitions and are mostly addressed in their beginning stages. When citizens’ complaints are rooted in central policy, they set the agenda for policy change in order to maintain social order. There is yet a third benefit conferred upon the PRC by the petition system. Thanks to the petition system, the central government can present itself as the ally of citizens when it addresses the matters raised by their petitions. As a result, the petition system grants the central government an opportunity to hold local officials accountable, scapegoat local authorities, divide citizens and local officials, and justly claim all the credit when its policies succeed. This helps to build citizens’ trust in their central government and reinforces its legitimacy in their eyes. In Huntington’s terms, the Chinese Communist Party institutionalizes mass support by addressing citizens’ grievances expressed through the channel of communication provided by the petition system. In this sense, the complaints of citizens can be very useful tools for regime maintenance. The author substantiates these points with case studies and statistical analysis.

A customer who complains is saying, "If only you will correct the situation, I will continue doing business with you." Seeing our organizations as our customers do is critical to achieving excellence. "Triple Customer Complaints" helps determine how customers define excellence and establishes quantifiable ways to improve processes in order to meet - and exceed - customer expectations. Written for executives and process owners facing the real-world challenge of creating and keeping customers, it shows readers: 1) How to walk in the customers' shoes to identify which quality and operational performance measures should be tracked. 2) How to define all aspects of a process as perceived by customers using a structured roadmap. 3) How to use process qualification to achieve early, measurable results. 4) How to create a complaint management system that vacuums up all valid customer complaints. 5) How to identify and map an organization's processes to ensure that the customer's point of view is primary.

To remain relevant in today’s world, practitioners should presume that they have two jobs: first, to do their work effectively so that they provide value to the organization; second, to improve how the work is done so that their organization remains competitive. This book offers clear guidance to excel at this ubiquitous second job. Informed by an appreciation that most personnel that work in any firm, even firms that are manufacturing-oriented, routinely provide services as a key element of their jobs, this book explains how to provide and improve internal customer service, regardless of industry or role. It illustrates the common features, or service process "DNA," while providing a diverse set of examples to enhance understanding. Written by a pioneer in the development of principles and methodologies that address services in a structured and distinctive manner, this book stresses that service processes are distinctly different from manufacturing processes. Rigorous and practical, this book will appeal to students and professionals alike, in business, hospitality, industrial management, public health, and other fields. Online resources include Excel files that act as templates to help with quantitative analysis routines.