Hirschman’s (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty framework gives us a model to consider economic interactions between companies and customers. When a customer is dissatisfied with service from an organisation they can choose to voice their grievance or exit the relationship , however loyalty affects the decision.
Voice
I did not agree with Virgin media’s stance on Net Neutrality, and I wanted to make my position known to them to give them an opportunity to address my grievance. I called their complaints telephone number (0845 454 1111).
I explained the situation to the operator and he stated that their system for dealing with complaints was broken. I asked if he could make a note of my call; he could not.
Exit
I asked the operator to make a note of my new decision not to renew my contract with Virgin media the following year. Service frequently malfunctioned on my broadband and cable TV package in my first year with Virgin Media (then NTL), but due to my perception of the Virgin brand, my belief that service would improve, satisfaction with the variety of channels, and the on demand services, when they worked, I had renewed my contract.
Their stance on net neutrality and their inability to take my complaint (my inability to voice) led me to the decision to leave the company.
Loyalty
Alternatively, the operator could have taken my complaint. I could have been contacted by e-mail later that day clarifying Virgin Media’s policy on net neutrality. Perhaps asked to voice my opinions on the issues, comment on their corporate blog, send an e-mail to the CIO, invite me to discuss my grievance with customers, employees and management.
Virgin Media’s CEO Neil Berkett could have been better informed of the issues surrounding net neutrality and not considered filtering Internet usage in order to exploit the power of ISP’s over users requiring them to access the traditionally democratic Internet.
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