Customer Complaint(s) - Can what a Customer Complaint is be defined?

[goallout]

In my company, when there are Customer complaint - it is usually through email or phone call. At times, we will receive official CAR from customer & sometime we don't.
We have a KPI system where we record every customer complaint. But recently we begin to debate whether for those complaint that just comes in the form of email or phone call telling us this "A" product got problem & without any request for a CAR ... should this counted as a complaint & factored in the KPI ?
Also, is there a universal definition for Customer complaint as which is counted & what is not ?


thks

[Ajit Basrur]

Hi goalout,

The ISO 13485:2003 has a nice definition of what is considered a customer complaint: Any written, electronic or oral communication that alleges deficiencies related to the identity, quality, durability, reliability, safety or performance (of a medical device) that has been placed on the market.

Additionally, ISO 9000 mentions that "Customer Complaints are indicator of low Customer satisfaction" but their absence doesnot necessarily imply high Customer Satisfaction"

I would suggest you to maintain a Log for registering Customer Complaints, which has a column for mentioning the mode of communication. Thus, if you receive oral communication over telephone, it can be recorded in that log accordingly.

Complaints offer very good opportunity to correct immediate problems. In addition, they frequently provide constructive ideas for improving products, adapting marketing practices, upgrading services, or modifying promotional material and product information.

There is a saying - "There is nothing wrong in making a mistake but there is something wrong in not learning from it and making the necessary corrections".

So, go ahead and record the Customer Complaints.

[Marc]

Don't forget that each company is different, so what each company defines as a *valid* Customer Complaint is often different.

[Ajit Basrur]

Marc,

Given the definition of ISO 13485, all oral, phone, email complaints are VALID, right ?

I give an example. Currently, I am on a business trip and am staying in a hotel. This morning, the room air conditioner was not working properly and the room turned stuffy. So I immediately went to the receptionist and lodged an oral complaint. She acted immediately and the room was okay.

This is like a 'QUALITY ISSUE" of the room conditions. Similarly, for my organisation, if the customer makes an oral complaint, I have to fully subscribe to his complaint.

[Marc]

Let's say you sell a blue widget and a customer calls and complains about the color not being red. It may be the customer expectation (for whatever reason) that the widget be red but if you advertise blue widgets the complaint is not valid.

My point is customers often complain about things that are not relevant to the product. These are not valid complaints.

I have a client who makes a commercial detergent that comes in 50 pound bags. A customer complained that the product did not 'foam up' enough. The foam is produced by a chemical that has nothing to do with cleaning. The chemical is put in because customers *expect* foam, but nowhere does my client state the product foams. They DO know, after making the stuff for over 50 years, that customers do expect some foam (just as many people who use hand soap of laundry soap *expect* some foam even if the foam has nothing to do with how well the product cleans. That complaint is rare, but when it does come in they classify it as an invalid complaint. How much foam is 'enough'? How much is too much?

These are simple examples. The point is to make sure you define what *valid* complaints are and what complaints are not valid. As to whether you log every complaint, valid or not, that's another issue.

[Marc]

By the way, there are a lot of customer complaint discussion threads here such as Customer Complaint - Definition of Customer Complaint which you might want to read through. Try a Search.

Several Customer Complaint discussion threads

[Ajit Basrur]

Thanks Marc. Yes, I do accept that its best left to the company to take the complaint as VALID or not.

However, the point which was given by goalout was -

But recently we begin to debate whether for those complaint that just comes in the form of email or phone call telling us this "A" product got problem & without any request for a CAR ... should this counted as a complaint & factored in the KPI ?

Thus I felt that he was enquiring about the mode of communication of Customer Complaints. In a good quality system, I would still accept the customer complaint and later assess if it is VALID or not. I shall give an example -

In my Pharmaceutical company, we receive complaints where the customer complaints that the strips are short of some tablets or some packs do not have tablet strips at all. I used to track all these complaints and found that most of the complaints originated from a single place. With these type of analysis, I could substantiate that these are not VALID. Additionally, I visited the distributors and retaliers in that area and showed them all my statistical analysis and graphs and also told them that their complaints are not genuine and may complaint to the authorities if they continue to do so. You know what, the complaints from that area got reduced.

[Marc]

Yup - I was just throwing in a bit of "think this through" info because I've seen so many companies that had not actually looked at the valid vs. invalid aspect.

Yes - you are right in how you answered.