Business Response Completeness in Addressing Multiple Customer Complaints: A content analysis of restaurant and coffee shop responses in Jakarta

Abstract

Negative reviews often contain several issues simultaneously, yet business responses do not necessarily address every complaint raised by customers. This study examines complaint complexity, response completeness, and the relationship between the two in restaurants and coffee shops. A structured content analysis was conducted on 146 negative review-response pairs from 25 businesses across Jakarta’s five administrative areas between January 2025 and June 2026. Complexity was measured by the number of complaint categories in each review and classified as one, two, or three or more complaints. Responses were classified as complete or partial/incomplete. Frequencies, proportions, cross-tabulations, and a chi-square test were used. The results show that 73.97% of the reviews contained at least two complaints. The proportion of partial responses increased from 10.53% for single complaints to 15.71% for two complaints and 23.68% for three or more complaints. However, the relationship between complaint complexity and response completeness was not statistically significant, χ²(2) = 2.446, p = .294. Generic responses occurred in 50.68% of the units, while a greater number of strategies and trust-recovery elements did not necessarily produce more complete coverage. This study proposes the complaint-response coverage gap to explain the discrepancy between the issues raised by customers and those substantively addressed by businesses. Businesses should adopt an issue-based response approach that acknowledges each complaint and communicates relevant follow-up actions.

Keywords: multiple complaints, response completeness, negative reviews, business communication, service recovery