Handling complaints

Customer complaints can be divided in directly related to the product and complaints that are non product related.
Product related means that the product that is not conform the specification.
Non product related complaints are about delivery times, invoices, clerical errors, etc.
For product related complaints every complaint that is brought to our attention by a customer is registered. Product related complaints that are not justified are used as a source of information.
For non product related complaints we are in a process of making the complaint handling more efficient and somebody came up with the idea of only registering complaints that are justified.
My believe is that you loose valuable information if you sieve out the not justified complaints.
Please share your opinions with me.

Have a nice day, Okido

Hi,

Product related complaints that are not justified are used as a source of information.

All customer complaints (CC) are relevant and therefore requires documentation to register your action.

Non product related complaints are about delivery times, invoices, clerical errors, etc.

As this is an accounting issue - I agree that it is not relevant but the customer has a right to complaint albeit to the ACCOUNTING department and has nothing to do with QA/QC issues. Registration is irrelevant but it looks like a good idea to have a a monitoring system to register non-product complaints

Hope this helps

Charles Chew

A customer can be dissatisfied with the product or service so both are important and there should be no distinction. All complaints should be logged and investigated; how else would you arrive at the conclusion of ‘not justified'? If you are getting a lot of this type of complaint it could mean there is a gap between customers' expectations and your actual product and/or service. It may need some customer education or better communication on your part. You are correct Okido you loose valuable information if you sieve out the not justified complaints.

Regards,
Simon

IMO complaints on delivery time could lead to food safety / quality issues so this is certainly a product related event

However, although IMO non product related issues are not product complaints - how could you ensure integrity of your traceability system if your D. Note or Invoices contain wrong information that would be certain to affect your recovery and reconciliation of affected products during the recall/recovery process.

Charles Chew

What do you mean with the abbreviation IMO??

I think Charles means "In My Opinion" (otherwise I haven't got a clue).

I agree with you Okido, that all complaints, whether justified or unjustified, should be recorded.

It can be all to easy to ignore / discard the "unjustified" complaints as it makes your complaint figures look better.

It may be the case that in the future you identify a patern in these "unjustified" complaints which turn them into a "justified". If you haven't logged the data then you may have missed out.

What kind of complaints do we class as unjustified?

I think Charles means "In My Opinion" (otherwise I haven't got a clue).

Yes that is what it meant. Again, I just want to add how dynamic a food program can be. Yorky has his point when mentioned that what is not justified to someone or now may well be considered justified later.

So, your team decides on the policy you deem fit in well in your organization.

Charles CHew

Did this help you at all Okido?

Regards,
Simon

The arguments that came up were interesting.
I am confident that the policy will change into registering all complaints within time.
Further I learned that IMO is used as "in my opinion", thus far I would read this as "International Maritime Organisation".

What kind of complaints do we class as unjustified? :uhm
Example of an unjustified complaint:
The customer complaints about the wrong product price on an invoice.
The customer looked up the price in a list we provided and his list was not up to date.
If this would occur with one customer out of 100, I would not worry. But if it occurred with 20 out 100 I would seriously look at the way price list's are updated.
I can see the implications if we would speak about recipes for food products here.
So is it prudent to do a risk analysis on complaint reasons maybe? Or go as far to identify the whole complaint handling process as being a critical process.
Anyway, good stuff to think about.


Have a nice day, Okido

Further I learned that IMO is used as "in my opinion", thus far I would read this as "International Maritime Organisation".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I see the confusion Okido.

Regards,
Simon