Complaints management - How to improve your complaints processes!

Complaints management is a sub-area of the Customer management. Although the handling of complaints is an important aspect of customer management, many companies focus too much on dealing with problems and complaints. 

If set up correctly, a service department can not only process complaints and claims, but also proactively develop processes to sustainably reduce the number of disappointed customers. Here, too, there are sensible approaches based on the principle of Service Excellence based. 

Why do we need a complaints management system?

Good complaint management is important in order to develop effective processes for handling customer complaints and at the same time to be able to process important customer feedback for other parts of the company in a meaningful way. From time to time, every company will have customers who are not satisfied with its products or services. In this case, it is important to work quickly and efficiently in order to Customer expectations not to disappoint.

After all, if you provide customers with competent support and successful assistance in the event of a claim, they are often even more loyal to your company than before. At the same time, service is an important factor that customers take into account when making new purchasing decisions, especially in the B2B environment. This means that you can also lose out particularly quickly here. So act proactively! More info>>

What does a complaints management process look like?

As part of the complaints management process, procedures must be developed to ensure that the 4 basic steps of complaints handling are handled in a meaningful way:

1. Acceptance and examination of the complaint: Which touchpoints should customers use to contact your company? How do you communicate these contact channels to the customer? More info>>

1. Categorization of the complaint: How can complaints be categorized so that further processing can proceed sensibly? Who is responsible in the further course and what priority is given to processing a complaint?

1. Choice of solution: How can complaints be handled effectively? How can economically sensible solutions that are acceptable to both parties be found as efficiently as possible? What standard procedures can be established here? More info>>

1. Collection and processing of data as part of complaints management: How can meaningful key figures for measuring success and optimization be collected statistically? Which software tools offer the greatest benefit? Ticket or workflow management systems are particularly helpful.

What criteria play a role in recording complaints?

• Completeness: All complaint information relevant to the processing must be recorded and documented. This information relates to the complaining customer themselves, their experiences that led to the complaint and the object of the complaint (i.e. their own service or product). The handling process also includes documenting the measures that were taken after the complaint was received.

• Recording structure: Customer complaints should be recorded using a defined, standardized and logical structure. In this way, you can ensure that all important aspects are recorded. At the same time, forms and input masks should be designed in such a way that the employee processing the complaint does not have to interrupt the customer's narrative structure.

• SpeedThis point concerns the speedy processing of a complaint, but also the uncomplicated possibility for the customer to express his complaint to your company.

Why is good complaint management important?

The complaints process in your company must be designed in such a way that it is understandable for customers and motivates them to contact your service department with problems in good time. The fast and efficient processing of problems can also only be guaranteed through effective management.

The customer's inhibition threshold for contacting you should be kept as low as possible through suitable communication measures. Ideally, it should be pointed out at the sales initiation stage which channels can be used to contact the service department in the event of a problem. This information should also be placed on invoices, packaging material and operating instructions. Specially developed guidelines should always be used for the Customer communication be taken into account.

As after-sales strategists, we are working on not only focusing service on dealing with customer problems, but also expanding it into a separate business area in the long term, which generates sales through its own services. The basic prerequisite for this is the optimal design of complaints processes, so that your service department can achieve even more on this basis. If you don't perform well in this basic discipline, you don't need to think about expanding your business with After-Sales-services.

What is active complaint management?  

Active complaint management means that companies do not simply wait for dissatisfied customers to contact them. A first step in this direction is to provide information in good time about usable communication channels that can be used to make contact.

In addition, procedures can be used to proactively obtain customers' opinions on products or services. In many cases, it is useful to introduce a rating system or ask the customer for their opinion. In this way, you can quickly identify dissatisfied customers and approach them before anger builds up and is unleashed on your employees.

A Complaint Manager (The Complaint Manager is responsible for the efficient and targeted handling of complaints and conducts complaint discussions with customers in particularly relevant cases. The appointment of a Complaint Manager can ensure that complaint management issues are addressed proactively. As a result, solutions that are acceptable to both sides can be found more quickly and costs can be permanently reduced. The Complaint Manager occupies an important position among the various Roles in after-sales.   

Why are complaints important?

The number of dissatisfied customers with complaints should be kept as low as possible. However, a reduction in complaints is not always the goal. After all, customer complaints are necessary to increase satisfaction with your offering and improve processes.

Complaints are irreplaceable for the further development of the company, its products and its service. They should be seen as an opportunity to develop your own company step by step towards excellence. The aim is to handle them as efficiently and economically as possible and then use the lessons learned to confront your own processes and prevent corresponding errors in the future.

To do this, you need to align your own service organization and ensure that feedback also reaches management. Of course, not every incident needs to be reported. However, you need to implement a suitable culture in your department so that you gain an overview of the problems that customers have with your offering. More info>>

You can't always assume that everyone is happy with your service just because your hotline lines are down. This may also be a deceptive sign. After all, there will still be some competitors on the market. Some customers may simply turn to them in secret if they no longer have confidence in your company.

Why don't dissatisfied customers complain?

Many customers are dissatisfied and yet do not complain to the company that is responsible for their frustration. Procedures must be developed to counteract this effect and achieve a high level of customer satisfaction.

There may be various reasons for such behavior, which you should check first:

• - The customer does not trust that your service department can help him.

• - The customer does not know which channels to use to contact you.

• - The complaint process seems too cumbersome.

• - The customer can easily switch providers.

• - The customer does not want to appear rude.

How do I handle complaints and claims?

Some of your employees have a particularly good sense of how to calm angry customers. You should use this in a targeted manner to take over difficult conversations. The underlying psychological mechanisms must also be taken into account when discussing complaints and claims. You must ensure that you give the customer back a sense of control over the interaction. There are interesting approaches to this from research. More info>>

Compensation strategies in the event of a complaint

The topic of compensation always comes into focus in complaint management when your organization has actually committed misconduct. The research provides useful insights into how best to proceed in order to restore customer satisfaction while keeping an eye on your own costs. More info>>

Of course, customers should be compensated if they make a mistake. In many companies, however, the costs incurred through goodwill are far too high. Most Service Manager unfortunately do not pay enough attention to these costs. This is mainly because, in addition to goodwill decisions that are made deliberately, there are also goodwill costs that people are not necessarily aware of. For example, in the event of misuse or process weaknesses. More info>>

Successful complaint management is the foundation on which a service department can build in order to realize its own after-sales strategy. Service is closer to the customer than almost any other area of a company. See this as an opportunity and use the information you can gain about customer needs, including through customer complaints, to continuously improve your offering.