“Jeeeejjjjj, we have another complaint!”. That's a phrase you don't hear often. A complaint comes from a customer who expected more but received less. It can happen, because where minced meat is minced, chips fall. But getting complaints is a bit difficult and often not so much fun.
Disappointment is a personal and drastic phenomenon. Someone else expected more from you and you didn't deliver it. You feel that you have failed or that your company or organization has failed. How personally a complaint comes to you depends on your involvement in the organization where you work.
Complaint, complainant, lament...
There is a hint of dissatisfaction and negativity around those words. Happy words like a tip (to do something better) or suggestion are essentially the same thing but are much more positive. “Jeeeejjjjj, we got another tip on how to get even better!” That sounds different, doesn't it?
A more positive approach
Perhaps we should start with a more positive approach to the phenomenon, which we still call a complaint. Someone who complains takes the trouble to share their dissatisfaction with your company. That fact alone is worth an enormous amount. It gives you the chance to fix a mistake and maintain the customer relationship. A well-resolved complaint does a lot for the relationship with the customer. Much more than when everything always goes well. So let's see how we can turn a complaint into a force.
Why every complaint deserves a thank you
First, each complainant should receive a thank-you note. Something along the lines of “We understand that something went wrong. Thank you for letting me know. This gives us the opportunity to deal with your question and improve our product/service. We will immediately get to work on your question.”
An organization that wants to improve is open to tips and suggestions from its customers (what we just called complaints). For this, it is necessary to listen, but also to act, because complaints usually do not resolve themselves. And when a complaint is resolved, you want to know whether it was an incident or if there is a deeper cause that needs to be addressed. This is because if you address that cause, you prevent the same complaint from recurring over and over again.
Improvement management does not come naturally
You need to organize improvement management, because that does not happen automatically. What you need for that is a structure, tools and a bit of discipline.
Structure is everything that needs to be conceived and set up before you can speak of structural improvement management. Think of formulating a vision and a policy. Setting up processes and informing people who deal directly with customers.
Tools can include a budget to be able to do repairs or replacements. But also from software that you can use to analyze and manage improvement suggestions.
Discipline is something that can disappear like snow in the sun when there suddenly seem to be different priorities. Discipline comes partly from you. That's called intrinsic discipline and it means doing something because you want to do it. Honestly, that should be the basis in all cases. Extrinsic discipline comes from someone or from a system that reminds you that you have to do something.
One system to turn a complaint into a force
Software can be an excellent extrinsic disciplinator. Software that analyzes a complaint or suggestion before it is automatically sent to the right place or person in the organization to address. Software that monitors whether this follow-up is actually happening and kindly encourages the person responsible to take action at the right time. Software that shows how many complaints are received per business unit and what percentage are successfully resolved within what time. Software that shows where the most common derailments lie and even which employees have the largest or smallest share in solving them.
ISO2HANDLE software is a powerful tool for turning a complaint into a force. The platform makes real-time performance on each essential KPI clearly visible. In fact, you can do everything you need to integrally manage customer satisfaction with it.
It ensures that complaints are automatically placed in the organization and effectively monitored. It collects evaluations, experiences and complaints via smart forms that you can easily embed into your website. It includes tools to analyse what went wrong and why it went wrong. And it ensures that complaints and suggestions for improvement are addressed and resolved.
Do you want to know more about complaint management via ISO2HANDLE? Then let's schedule a short demo without obligation and exploratory measures to see what can be done.
