Companies must view complaints not as a threat to business but as an important source of information.

If you have a complaint with the ferry service between Stranraer in Scotland and Belfast, employees are allowed to spend up to £1,000 (€1,470) to solve the problem for you - without having to obtain management approval. Stena Line, the Swedish operator, credits the "satisfaction strategy" developed on the crossing with boosting its market share, and it has now been extended to all other Stena routes.

At Fujitsu, the "sense and respond" approach has been adopted throughout the global company to persuade units to solve customers' complaints rather than make glib excuses for mistakes and poor service.

Customer and staff satisfaction has improved sharply, it is claimed, and IT contract renewals have increased in step.

Such cases illustrate the growing commitment of companies to pay closer attention to their customers and help resolve complaints. They are still a few small voices in the wilderness, however.

Most consumers have personal horror stories of bank letters demanding payment of a non-existing account, helplines that can't or won't help and managers who cower behind expensive automated systems.

Moreover, the problem is getting worse, surveys show. Research by Accenture, the management consultancy, found that when telephoning to complain, customers spent an average of six minutes on hold, and spoke to more than two service representatives.

Corporate attitudes to complaining are frequently negative, too. Researchers at Birmingham's Aston University found that the majority of chief executives regard complaining customers as a nuisance and too demanding.

Yet most chief executives would swear their companies are "customer-orientated". Customer relationship managers and call centres are common, and attitude surveys will record gratifyingly high percentages of "satisfied" customers, allowing the chief executive to assume that all is well.

Research by Frederick Reichheld, director emeritus at Bain & Company, the strategy consultancy, provides a reality check. He has shown that over the past decade, the only reliable guide to customer loyalty (and future purchases) is the answer to the question "Would you recommend [ company X] to a friend or colleague?"

Mere satisfaction is not enough to bring customers back, while those who come away vaguely dissatisfied won't complain, but next time simply vote with their credit cards - and quite probably, tell their friends.

Some sectors are better than others at making sure customers have few reasons to complain.

The rise in complaints may also result from companies' efforts to "manage" the customer relationship in the hope of reducing costs, typically electronically.

Automated call-handling systems, for example, often make the error of providing options based on the company's organisation, not its customers' problems.

Call centres are notorious for poor treatment of staff, resulting in high turnover and low expertise. Senior managers designate them as cost centres and judge them by the number of calls handled and the average times taken to resolve them. Often staff pass on their frustration to customers.

Meanwhile, automated accounting systems in shared service centres may issue accounts and pass the non-payers to debt collection agencies without any human intervention.

What is required is not automation, says Stephen Parry, managing director of Transform, the consultancy that devised Fujitsu's customer-handling procedure. First, he says, the board should understand that the customer relationship is an opportunity for profitable growth, not a drag on the bottom line.

Chief executives must remember even when profits are tight that repeat purchases are several times cheaper than new business, and complaints are not a threat but an invaluable source of information and future loyalty.

Alan Gordon, Stena Line's route director who came up with the scheme for ferry staff, says that he has never had to pay out the £1,000.

Where five years ago they expected to receive four complaints for every compliment, now they find they get three compliments for every complaint.

- (Financial Times service)