View Full Version : Improvements and difficulties in implementing customer complaints procedure
DAWELAH 9th August 2008, 12:41 PM Dear experts,
In services fields (Hotels – Travel Tickets, Tours Packages, the customer complaints must be solved once it’s received. Am I Right?
Our Company customer complaints procedure (Major Problems) briefly as follows:
1- receive the complain in customer complaint report by compliant receiver
2- the complaint receiver forwards the report to the branch manager
3- the branch manager studies the problem with concerned parties
4- the branch manager writes the corrective action in the report
5- the branch manager assigns the corrective action to the concerned employee
6- the concerned employee implements the corrective action.
7- The branch manager follows up the effective implementation of the corrective action taken and close the report
8- The branch manager summaries the problem in the complains registry
The difficulties for implementing the procedure are:
1- The employees (front line staff) say that the don’t like to write the complaints in the report, always they convey the complains by telephone
2- They do not have enough time for documenting the problems
3- They do not like to use the customer complaint report
My inquiries are:
1- Should we use specific form for documenting complains? If not, are there alternatives?
2- Should we change the procedure?
3- What is the best way to document the customer complaints
Need your advices :bonk:
Sidney Vianna 9th August 2008, 02:11 PM There are several improvements you can make to your customer complaint handling process.
For example, add an early step to acknowledge the receipt of the complaint and explain when they could hear back from your organization.
Another example, you could make the process for a complainant to lodge a complaint easier, by an on-line (website) feature. That would take some of the stress out from the people having to deal with an unhappy customer, either face to face, or over a phone line.
For a lot of additional guidance on establishing a robust customer complaint handling process, consider reviewing ISO 10002:2004. It has a lot of good suggestions, including form examples.
Earlier this year I delivered a free webinar on ISO 10002 and I will be delivering another one on September 17th (http://readycommconf.com/dnv/register.php?event=479).
Also, check these following threads:
ISO 10002:2004 implementation roadmap (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=28032&highlight=10002)
ISO 10002:2004 - Customer Satisfaction - Customer Complaint Procedure (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=24475&highlight=10002)
ISO/FDIS 10002 Quality Management - Customer Satisfaction - Guidelines for Complaints (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=8057&highlight=10002)
Customer Complaint(s) - Can what a Customer Complaint is be defined? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=18023&highlight=10002)
Customer Complaints Processing - How long should it take??? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=14781&highlight=10002)
Big Jim 9th August 2008, 03:25 PM I'll make some comments from a non ISO perspective from past experience.
Once a complaint is lodged, customers don't like to wait for the bureaucracy gears to turn, they would like an immediate resolution.
Empower someone as close to the company / customer interface as possible to resolve most of the problems. With the empowerment, make sure they are trained so they don't give away more than is needful (don't give away a trip to Hawaii if an apology is all they were after). Most customers are happy if you respond favorably to their reasonable requests.
If the request seems unreasonable or if the situation exceeds the ability of the first responder, back up should be readily available.
No one likes to fill out forms, especially the customer. Customers don't even like to help you fill out the forms. Customers are not dumb, and often see the forms as just a way to put them off. Try to have a system that does not have forms that involve the customer.
Save the forms (and brief ones at that) to report what the customer's concern was and how it was resolved.
Only use a form that involves the customer when there is no other way, and still try to find a way to resolve the problem reasonably without involving them with forms.
Duke Okes 9th August 2008, 05:02 PM I wouldn't want to fill out the form either if all I was doing is taking the complaint. Teach those who fill it out how to make sure the customer knows that it will be investigated and resolved. Give them success stories to tell. Give them authority to compensate the customer in some way. Be sure they know how critical documenting problems accurately is if one wants to clearly communicate it across the organization and get an effective response.
Biggest thing missing from the procedure is that it does not require that the cause of the problem be found. Corrective actions are often just a shotgun approach ... do something so you can say you did it ... and do not actually address the cause of the problem.
BradM 9th August 2008, 05:46 PM Thank you for the question; it's a good one. Overall, your procedure is pretty impressive, and think a lot of business would benefit by spending a little time working on their customer service and the process. :)
Here are my own feelings about a trip I took to a nice resort. I copied verbatim from when I made them two months ago. They are my feelings, and almost exactly what I sent in to the management (I think) of the resort by e-mail:
I relaxed, enjoyed being with the wife and the friends, and meeting new people. However, my "operations" mind still runs. I was amazed at the operations of the place without computers. I could tell they closely kept up with food costs and the like by writing on clipboards and stuff. Their entire staff was friendly, personable, and had been well-trained on interfacing with guests.
However, their operations/ customer service end had something to be desired. On three unrelated incidents, I called the Front Desk, waited 3-4 hours, had to call again, blah blah. They don't writing anything down (from what I could tell), so if it isn't taken care of that instant, it's gone. If I was managing a multi-million dollar resort concerned about image, I would at least want something logged down somewhere. All these people putting out fires all day/night, but no record of any kind as to what those fires are. More importantly, how well did they take care of things. They bombed disastrously with me on a piddly little service request:mad:.
You can have a really good process of dealing with issues, and it may be very simple. The process needs to work, and I think it needs to be a system that management receives good information from.
In services fields (Hotels – Travel Tickets, Tours Packages, the customer complaints must be solved once it’s received. Am I Right?
I think complaints need to be identified as quickly as possible. But when they are resolved may be very quickly, or may take months. Its like one of the other Covers mentioned, finding the root cause is the goal, but may not be quick and easy.
Our Company customer complaints procedure (Major Problems) briefly as follows:
Thank you for pointing out about these being major problems. But... what about minor problems? It's good if there are things the front-line employees can handle personally. But.... if there are a whole lot of the same little stuff each employee handles everyday, it can be pretty helpful if that information can be communicated to management.
The difficulties for implementing the procedure are:
1- The employees (front line staff) say that the don’t like to write the complaints in the report, always they convey the complains by telephone
2- They do not have enough time for documenting the problems
3- They do not like to use the customer complaint report
All things being equal, most everyone would like to just say a problem/issue rather than write it down. Even in my personal complaint above, I could tell most everything they did to handle my "issues" was by phone. Which is fine, when everything goes well. But.. when it don't, there was no record, no blame, no one involved, etc. When I would have to call in again, they would asked me who I talked to. Now, maybe I should have been making records, but... well... I'm the customer:D. I expect them to be keeping up with things.
Also, after it was explained verbally two or three different times, I know some of the intent was lost. Especially given a language/cultural issues, it was all the more important to write it down, IMHO.
I think the most important issues are to 1) make the employees feel comfortable about turning in problems. It does not need to add to their workload too much, and more importantly, they need to feel management cares, and that resolution to the problems will have some benefit for them and the customers.
Secondly, 2) make sure the real problems are identified and fixed. A customer complaint procedure should not be about making people feel good (maybe a little:)); but should be about making a mistake once, and fixing things where that same problem does not happen again.
harry 9th August 2008, 11:40 PM One complaint commonly encountered while analyzing customer’s feedbacks during a survey is the time taken to respond to the customer – both enquiries and complaints.
I am not sure if it’s a cultural thing but most organizations over here do not have the decency to immediately send an acknowledgment upon receiving a complaint. From there you have to keep in touch with them and keep them informed if you need longer time to resolve the issue. If done properly, you not only have a happy customer but you give them an impression that you are professional and genuinely interested in their well being.
The key element here is response time and I have an interesting article here that compares it to criminal psychology. Customer Service and Criminal Psychology. (http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3561216)
joshua_sx1 10th August 2008, 02:30 AM ...that is why, I believe, customer complaint procedure should be very simple indeed – both to customer and the one who is conveying the complaint to the management (or the process itself)…
…how to make it simple? well, this is where adversity coming from…
:2cents:
DAWELAH 10th August 2008, 11:59 AM No one likes to fill out forms, especially the customer. Customers don't even like to help you fill out the forms. Customers are not dumb, and often see the forms as just a way to put them off. Try to have a system that does not have forms that involve the customer.
Yes, agree with you.
Most of complaints are solved.
But what about the documentation!!
How do we know if these problems are repeated or not?
How do we monitor and analyze the complaints with out documentation?
Ajit Basrur 10th August 2008, 12:11 PM Yes, agree with you.
Most of complaints are solved.
But what about the documentation!!
How do we know if these problems are repeated or not?
How do we monitor and analyze the complaints with out documentation?
Hi Dawelah,
You have posted your question in the ISO 9001 section so I presume your organization is certified to ISO 9001, isnt it ?
Documentation is very vital and an integral part of any quality management system. To explain the importance of documentation, it can be said that - "What is not documented is not done"
DAWELAH 10th August 2008, 07:34 PM Hi Dawelah,
You have posted your question in the ISO 9001 section so I presume your organization is certified to ISO 9001, isnt it?
Yes, our company is certified to ISO 9001:applause:
need your advise:thanx:
Ajit Basrur 10th August 2008, 09:43 PM Yes, our company is certified to ISO 9001:applause:
need your advise:thanx:
Then you need to have the documentation, right ?
DAWELAH 11th August 2008, 02:48 AM Then you need to have the documentation, right ?
right :agree1:
Big Jim 11th August 2008, 03:04 AM The company should be tracking the customer complaints as nonconformances. I'm suggesting that you don't want to make the customer fill out the forms. The employee that resolved the problem could fill out a brief form to track it.
JaneB 15th August 2008, 02:07 AM 1- Should we use specific form for documenting complains? If not, are there alternatives?
2- Should we change the procedure?
3- What is the best way to document the customer complaints
I sometimes think 'complaints' forms are deliberately designed to make sure that NO ONE ever fills them in! (because it's too much work, they're too long, too confusing, too hard to do, etc etc).
Forms aren't necessarily the best way. In fact, there isn't a single 'best way' - you have to find a way that will work for you. Doesn't sound as though the current method is doing so well.
I was discussing methods with an auditor recently who told me of auditing a call centre, who had a central register for complaints. The procedure was that whenever a complaint was received, the operator was supposed to go & record all the details in the register. Problem was: no one ever did this.
Guess why? It took too long - by the time they'd got out of their chair, gone to the register and written in all the details, at least 5 mins went past. And they couldn't afford the time, because they needed to 'make their call quotas'.
So management brainstormed and came up with a better idea. Replaced it with a quick 'tick the box' kind of electronic form, with the top 10 causes of complaints. Took <30 secs to fill in. Then managers analysed these weekly/daily/whatever, and worked on reducing the ones with the most numbers. And so on...
This worked MUCH better - and led to them making some real improvements.
Which is what it's all about. Hope this helps.
|
|
