Customer complaints: how to manage them effectively
Published on June 8, 2023
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Delivery delays, quality problems, invoicing errors… Customer complaints are numerous and can vary depending on the sector of activity of the company, the product or the service offered. A signal of a malfunction, it is essential not to take a customer complaint lightly. If the negative effects for the company are multiple, it is also a real opportunity to seize to increase its performance. So, why and how to effectively manage customer complaints? What are the best practices and what tools to use? Explanations with Catherine Altmann, consultant, trainer, ICA auditor and certified collective intelligence facilitator.
Receiving a customer complaint is often unpleasant. It is in fact a reflection that something is not working or no longer working in the way of serving the customer.
For example: a customer purchased a product online and did not receive the package within the announced delivery time. So he contacted the company to report the problem and request a refund or reshipment of the product. This is one of the most common customer complaints. We can also list a certain number of them.
The different types of customer complaints
Customer complaints vary depending on the sector of activity, product or service offered. They generally concern:
delivery delays or problems: a customer reports that they did not receive an order on time, or that the order arrived damaged;
quality issues: a customer reports a quality problem with a product or service, for example, if it does not meet the customer's standards or expectations;
communication problems: a customer reports a lack of communication or poor communication with the company, for example, if they cannot reach customer service;
staff behavior issues: a customer may report inappropriate behavior or a lack of professionalism on the part of company staff;
product or service defects: a customer may report a defect or problem with a product or service purchased;
billing errors: a customer can report an error on their invoice or overbilling.
customer service issues: A customer may report dissatisfaction with the quality or responsiveness of customer service.
Negative effects, certainly… but real advantages
The negative effects of dissatisfaction are multiple: loss of notoriety, damaged brand image, loss of customers, increased workload, increased internal costs, loss of energy and even meaning for employees.
However, the positive effects exist for any business. “We must see the complaint as a gift, a business opportunity, added value for the company.” Direct feedback from the client – who has spent time on this and who must therefore be listened to accordingly – above all allows weaknesses to be identified, like an internal audit. And the advantages are multiple because the claim allows the company:
to continuously adapt its internal organization in order to respond effectively to the internal and external challenges of the market. This is the very principle ofcontinuous improvement ;
to increase satisfaction and by extension to build customer AND employee loyalty. The relationship we have with our customers must be the same with our employees and even with our partners. It allows us to understand each person’s needs. We often forget it, but employees can also be customers of the brand. We think, for example, of mobile operators, energy suppliers, reservation centers.
to strengthen its notoriety, its reputation/e-reputation, its brand image and thus develop positive “word of mouth”.
The symmetry of attention
The principle of symmetry of attention suggests that in a healthy relationship, people give balanced attention to each other.
Companies that embrace this concept recognize that employee satisfaction is strongly linked to customer satisfaction. Beyond the positive effects on customers, it helps to involve employees and create an open organizational culture.
In business, we seek to respond to customer satisfaction, “but we don’t listen to it enough”. It is therefore essential to listen to both customers and employees. Each employee can in fact be a client of a company. This is the posture of symmetry of attention.
“We should therefore not hesitate to include employees in the process of analyzing the causes of customer complaints.”
You should know that for one customer who makes a complaint, there are seven dissatisfied customers who do not complain. Conversely, when one customer is satisfied, seven customers are notified. Proof that customer complaints should not be taken lightly.
The complaints iceberg (source: TARP research).
Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) allows companies to measure the satisfaction and loyalty of their customers. The question asked: on a scale of 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely), to what extent would you recommend our company, product, service to those around you? The responses fall into three groups.
Promoters (score of 9 and 10): so satisfied, these customers will seek to promote the brand themselves.
Passives (score of 7 and 8): satisfied, these customers will not necessarily go to promote (it's the service provided and that's all).
Detractors (score from 0 to 6): dissatisfied, these customers will be likely to harm the brand. The average score is a very good indicator of company performance while making it possible to identify potential areas for improvement.
Curative action as a first resort
In organizations, the complaint is corrected instantly. This is what we call in quality specialist jargon the curative action. This involves, for example, offering the customer a commercial gesture, replacing a defective product or service, or updating a procedure, a work instruction, etc.
Let's take the example of late delivery of an online product. How to manage this customer complaint? Here is the appropriate curative action, in 4 steps:
a rapid response: the company must quickly respond to the customer's complaint and provide them with precise information on the status of their order;
solutions: the company can offer free reshipping or refund to satisfy the customer and correct the problem. If the complaint is unclear, the company may ask additional questions to understand the customer's expectations;
clear communication: the company must provide clear information about the proposed solution, the deadlines and the steps taken to resolve the complaint. Communication must be courteous and professional;
follow-up of the complaint: the company must ensure that the proposed solution is implemented within the allotted time frame and that the customer is satisfied with the resolution of the problem. Communication can continue until the customer is satisfied.
Another example: a campsite reservation center receives a customer complaint. The vacationer is furious because he discovers that he will have to pitch his tent in the sand. The curative action: after numerous discussions with the campsite reception, he was offered a location that suited his needs in a neighboring campsite.
The first reflex is therefore to resolve the problem punctually. But this is not enough, far from it.
The correct posture to adopt
“The majority of companies focus only on the curative aspect, but we must combine curative and corrective.” It is indeed essential to think about the root cause of the dysfunction. This is in order to understand why we failed or forgot to implement actions to ensure the quality of the service or product delivered and above all to prevent this problem from reappearing. We must therefore move from a posture of justification and defense to a posture of openness to tend towards “doing it right the first time”.
“Once this posture is understood, we gain in efficiency.”
Let's take the example of the reservation center and the dissatisfied customer. Once the curative action has been carried out, it is essential to understand the reasons for the dissatisfaction to prevent it from recurring. The appropriate tool: the 5 whys method. By questioning the various interested parties, we discovered that neither the website nor the contract mentions the presence of sandy soil even though the campsite is located near the Pilat dune. This analysis will make it possible to make a correction to the website in order to be transparent and thus prevent this type of problem from recurring.
Another example of a customer complaint
An industrial electronics company is not satisfied with the product – the CRM – deployed “with difficulty and with considerable delay” by its supplier. This effectively resulted in the termination of the contract. Thanks to several methods (the 5 whys, fast codev or speed codevelopment) led by an external facilitator, the interested parties were able to express their dissatisfaction and their needs to understand what did not work (insufficient framing, management, communication). Result: a peaceful relationship between the stakeholders and the resumption of the partnership on a healthy basis. The client even decided to restart the CRM project.
Most complaints are attributed to the company's operational activities. Which is often a sign that the real cause analysis has not been sufficiently in-depth. Indeed, the causes of dysfunction concern all strata of the company: human resources (recruitment and training problems), finances (unsuitable tools), sales (customer needs not understood), organizational (process insufficiency), etc.
Tools for effective customer complaints management
There are different complaint management tools and systems.
The FMEA matrix makes it possible to identify complaints, formalize an analysis of the causes and action plans. This is also the case for the QQOQCP. This tool helps identify problems using a list of questions (who, what, where, when, how much, how, for what), combining precise numerical data to obtain numerical objectives. Other tools, the 5M (methods, means, materials, exploitation, environment) and the 5 whys, as seen previously (tree of causes). Brainstorming and decision grids also make it possible to identify possible solutions.
In order to simplify and optimize the processing of customer complaints, companies can, for example, take advantage of Microsoft SharePoint technology to streamline and share action plans.
How to anticipate and prevent customer complaints?
It first involves setting up a quality management system to ensure that the organization in place meets the expectations of customers, employees, partners, etc.
The ISO 9001: 2015 standard is an excellent tool, especially since it is an international recognition “guarantee of quality” for customers and prospects.
Organization which will make it possible to identify activity and performance indicators, to carry out periodic controls (audits, reviews), to collect feedback from interested parties (for example customer satisfaction surveys, annual interviews, etc.) in order to monitor its effectiveness and efficiency.
What you need to remember: although the negative effects of a complaint for the company are numerous, it is nonetheless a matter of seeing it as a real opportunity to be seized to stay one step ahead and stand out from the competition . It is therefore essential to take customer complaints into consideration. We must also go beyond the framework of curative action and not simply correct the problem instantly. But go further by thinking about the root cause of the dysfunction. A posture of openness which will allow the company to gain in effectiveness and efficiency, thanks to complaints management tools.
