Who Complains MOST?

It is important not to stereotype.

Anyone can be a complainer, regardless of age, gender, nationality, intelligence, social status or hair colour. One of the most interesting things about working in the customer services sector is the range of people that one meets!

It is also important not to confuse complainants with complainers.

Complainants are people who make a complaint; complainers are people who habitually complain. We often refer to the latter as "penpals" in our office.

But who complains the MOST?

This obviously depends on the industry to a large extent. However, I have observed a number of more unusal trends that mark out people who regularly complain:

1. People with unfortunate names - people who have unfortunate names seem to complain more often and more viciously than anyone else. This may be a psychological thing. Many of the most familiar names in our files belong to people who MUST have suffered major bullying at school. Maybe they are taking this out on us...
2. Students - amazing, but true. Yes, older people do complain lots as well, but generally the most unnecessarily aggressive complaints come from students. They tend to go a little over the top in making their points, and often forget that people outside the university may be intelligent individuals as well. As a graduate and part-time post grad student, it always makes me laugh when students take this line with me. Do they realise that they too could graduate and end up in customer services...?
3. Menopausal Women - these can be spotted a mile a way. "I am NOT menopausal... I have a responsible job and I DON'T deserve to be treated like this!". The tears almost drip off the page sometimes. It is an unfortunate effect of hormones in some women, and I do not mean to cause any offence by suggesting that sometimes women of this age can get a little obsessional about complaining. Pregnant women often do the same. Despite my best diplomatic efforts, I have often resigned a telephone call by asking a weeping lady to write to us with her concerns so we can investigate formally. This gives them the time to think about things and hopefully write calmly - and us time to construct a water-tight, sympathetic response.

I would never advise anyone within these groups to refrain from making a valid complaint for fear of being branded. However, I would always advise taking a deep breath first. Remember: we customer service workers can often be menopausal students with unfortunate names too!

Has anyone else observed odd trends in complainant demographics? It would be an interesting thing to survey, wouldn't it? What creates a complainer's psyche? Comments very welcome!