How to document customer complaints from next door customer ?

[Ajit Basrur]

Need advise - we have one customer who is literally next door to us and expresses his concerns / complaints / grievance on a daily basis by all modes of communication like email, telephonic call and in writing. They have in fact instructed our Customer Service Manager to see them everyday so that they can give their "valuable" comments. They have also granted partial access to some of our employees so that they need not make "Visitor's Pass" when they come everyday.

Now, the problem is, this customer is not "Quality System" conscious and complains for any small issues that may not be really valid enough.

I need comments from you how to handle all these complaints ? I know that if we go by the definition of ISO 10002, all modes of customer complaints need to be tracked.

Any suggestions on how to track these complaints ?

[SteelMaiden]

Can you give some examples of what these complaints are, if your customer is not quality system oriented? Like are they complaining about non-product quality things, like "your tree is blocking our view"? Or environmental things like noise pollution? Why do they feel the need to have this constant back and forth with you? This sounds like the grumpy old lady in a neighborhood full of young families.

[Ajit Basrur]

Originally Posted by SteelMaiden

Can you give some examples of what these complaints are, if your customer is not quality system oriented? Like are they complaining about non-product quality things, like "your tree is blocking our view"? Or environmental things like noise pollution? Why do they feel the need to have this constant back and forth with you? This sounds like the grumpy old lady in a neighborhood full of young families.

Some of the examples are -

This customer has given us very poorly written specification that do not define the requirements very clearly. Even if we give parts that meet the specs, he will come up with a parameter that is not in the spec for the reason of rejection.

There is no single voice at the customer end and representatives from different departments say different things. When we suggested to channelise all these voices through a "contact", they were not happy and bluntly reminded that we are the supplier and should hear to customer

The drawings are poorly controlled and this leads to lot of confusion

They do not respect the Contract Review and change the orders within few hours so adding to lot of pressure in planning the materials.

Fortunately nothing on the examples that you mentioned

[Peter West]

Definitely need a bit more information as to what the complaints relate to. If it is over some of your company's operations it may be that you are infringing on their property (from the sounds of it I doubt if that is the case).

As far as having a daily meeting with them, that would surely satisfy the need to address complaints (external communication) however it would make more sense to make this a formal monthly event. They can keep a list of issues they note and you can address them as necessary in a 1/2 hour meeting. It is not practical to do this every day and this alternate way of doing things places a degree of responsibility with them (having to maintain a list and go to a monthly meeting). That way meeting minutes can be held on record also.

I am unsure what the specific requirements are of 10002 ( I will read when I have time) but surely if you are seen to be addressing the fact that your neighbour has concerns, that would be sufficient for an external auditor (? hopefully). Production of monthly minutes would surely appease any auditor.

Also, how many complaints a day are you talking about?

[Peter West]

So is the neighbour a client of yours? If so I would suggest revising any contract or terms of appointment/agreement to allow for stricter controls all over. Still not too sure as to what their complaints relate to though?

IS it a product you provide? I would have thought if you offered them one point of contact, "dedicated" to them, they should be more than happy, and if they are not, then they are definitely difficult people

[SteelMaiden]

Well, not being fully in tune with the business culture there....Changes in drawing/specification in jobs I have worked where these were an issue would result in a hefty change order fee. Yes, the customer is always right (except when they are wrong), but this case here seems to be using that as a weapon to bully you. Can your company afford to lose their business (probably for a short time until they come to their senses)? We've had customers that threw the "the customer is always right" thing in our face when making unreasonable demands. We've actually said "fine, since it is clear that we cannot provide what you want, we respectfully decline from quoting this order." In most cases we've not lost the business, but actually probably come out ahead in the game because those customers have quit looking for ways to nickle and dime us to death. In a case or two, we've lost the business entirely, in most cases to have that customer come back begging, we've just politely told them we have filled our order books, there is no capacity left for them. (nobody else in the industry wants to do business with them either).

[Ajit Basrur]

Originally Posted by Peter West

So is the neighbour a client of yours? If so I would suggest revising any contract or terms of appointment/agreement to allow for stricter controls all over. Still not too sure as to what their complaints relate to though?

IS it a product you provide? I would have thought if you offered them one point of contact, "dedicated" to them, they should be more than happy, and if they are not, then they are definitely difficult people

Agree with you Peter that its high time for us to come in for stricter contract to avoid all these loose edges.

Yes, we make parts for them and the customer does a final assembly at their end. We had already suggested them the concept of one point of contact but they blatantly turned it down.

[Ajit Basrur]

Originally Posted by SteelMaiden

Well, not being fully in tune with the business culture there....Changes in drawing/specification in jobs I have worked where these were an issue would result in a hefty change order fee. Yes, the customer is always right (except when they are wrong), but this case here seems to be using that as a weapon to bully you. Can your company afford to lose their business (probably for a short time until they come to their senses)? We've had customers that threw the "the customer is always right" thing in our face when making unreasonable demands. We've actually said "fine, since it is clear that we cannot provide what you want, we respectfully decline from quoting this order." In most cases we've not lost the business, but actually probably come out ahead in the game because those customers have quit looking for ways to nickle and dime us to death. In a case or two, we've lost the business entirely, in most cases to have that customer come back begging, we've just politely told them we have filled our order books, there is no capacity left for them. (nobody else in the industry wants to do business with them either).

All the pains that we are suffering with this customer is well known and acknoeledged by our senior management too but they want us to continue as its a big player and coming up in a very big way.

In fact this customer has poor quality systems only in this plant (our bad luck) while the other plants elsewhere in the world seem to be doing good

So we are hoping that there will be light at the end of the tunnel and until that time