Most customers complain because the expectations they have when purchasing a product or service are not met, according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
The association consistently finds the following as causes behind the majority of customer complaints:
Misleading or false representations by sales staff
| COMPLAINT HANDLING CHECKLIST |
- Are complaint-handling procedures clearly understood by all employees?
- Has a person been designated to supervise complaint-handling activity?
- Are there clear, written procedures for screening and logging, investigating, acknowledging, resolving, resolving, responding to and following up complaints?
- Is there a known procedure for referring unsettled complaints to a third party dispute resolution mechanism?
- Do the procedures cover complaints by mail, phone, online or in person?
- Have you considered installing an 800-telephone number or online complaint form to aid in customer service and complaint handling?
- Are there management controls to ensure that complaints are processed according to policy and procedures?
- Do the controls ensure prompt handling and settlement of complaints within a reasonable time frame?
- Are communications to customers handled in a helpful and courteous manner and can you ensure prompt and complete answers to customer questions?
- Has there been any analysis by management of past complaints to identify patterns, trends and causes?
- Does the manner of complaint handling represent the best interests of the company as well as its customers? – Better Business Bureau
|
UNDERLYING CAUSES:
Wide-ranging product choices with a lack of information for making purchasing decisions
Complicated product design
Poor product instructions
The foundation of customer goodwill is the practice of good customer relations. Your policy is a promise that you are committed to customer satisfaction. Ask yourself, does your customer relations policy:
Encourage your customers to express their concerns?
Solve problems quickly and conveniently?
Cover your business' advertising, sales promotions, displays, selling methods, pricing, warranties, deliveries, returns, refunds, etc.?
Properly train your employees in customer relations matters?
Conform to federal, state and local laws and regulations?
While all staff may have complaint handling responsibility, one person within your company should have ultimate authority for customer relations, advised the BBB. This person should be available to act on behalf of the company in all customer relations matters.
Display your customer relations policy in your advertising and post it in your place of business. Also, provide a copy of this policy with your sales receipts to guard against misunderstandings and encourage customer to approach you for assistance if needed.
The following questions can help you evaluate your company for its strengths and weaknesses in promoting greater customer satisfaction:
Do you have a formal, written customer relations policy?
Does the policy cover all aspects of the business that directly relate to the customer, such as advertising, sales promotions, displays, selling methods, servicing, warranties, pricing, deliveries, returns, refunds, complaint handling, etc?
Does you policy state a commitment to using a third party dispute resolution program for unsettled complaints?
Is the policy clear and easily understood at all levels of the organization?
Does management monitor and enforce the policy?
Is the policy consistent with applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations?
Are there any practices, attitudes or understandings that appear to be in conflict with existing policy?
In the long run, business profits are tied to a company’s ability to satisfy customers. This being the case, the following findings from a summary of recent studies conducted by Technical Assistance Research Programs (TARP), Arlington, Va., should be sobering to any business owner:
About 50 percent of the time, customers who have a problem with a product or service are not likely to tell a company about it.
Between 50 and 90 percent of these silent critics will probably take their future business to a competitor.
Even when a customer does complain, one of every two will not be thoroughly satisfied with the company’s efforts to solve the problem.
Dissatisfied customers typically tell between eight to 16 other people when they have had an unsatisfactory experience with a company.
Negative information has twice the impact of positive information on purchasing decisions.
Word-of-mouth is one of the most important factors influencing a customer’s decision to buy from a company.
It costs between two to 20 times as much to win a new customer as to retain an existing one who has a complaint.
As the TARP studies show, complaints are one of your most important business opportunities; often returning $5 in revenue for every $1 spent on complaint handling. The guidance and suggestions found in this brochure can help your business formulate complaint handling policies and procedures that can help you retain customers who would otherwise be lost.
