Assess, develop and refine your complaint handling strategy
Featured in the Complaint handling for positive outcomes training manual
By Nina Lockwood
Category: Customer Service
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
For any process or procedure to work effectively, it must be user-friendly — in the case of a complaints process, this means both for the employees and for the customers of the organisation. Few organisations have a clearly defined strategy for dealing with complaints. However, to ensure that each member of staff is clear as to what it expected of them if a customer complains, it is important to state the preferred methods for handling complaints and give guidelines on matters such as compensation. This training activity focuses on the benefits of a clearly defined strategy — to the customer, the organisation and the individual member of staff.
This whole training activity is based on an analysis of the existing procedures, taking into account other methods experienced by the participants when they have been customers. You start by inviting the participants to discuss what methods are currently used to investigate and record customer complaints. They will compare the different methods and consider the benefits of each. The participants will then devise a flowchart showing the current process in one organisation and discuss whether this is effective from both a customer and business point of view. You then ask the participants to look at ways of improving the process, using ‘out of the box’ thinking with no holds barred. Any suggestions form part of an action plan, which, ideally, will be delivered to the management team of the relevant organisation (by the attending participant(s)) to discuss potential implementation.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to provide participants with an opportunity to consider the effectiveness of current complaints processes, taking customer needs into account, and to devise an action plan for improving their existing system.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 6 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:55:00 |
| No of Pages: | 13 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: Access to telephones
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers with all members of staff, both managerial and front-line. It is useful to have a mix of staff so that the complaints process is viewed from different angles. If at all possible, taking the different organisations and products into account, a customer should also be invited to attend.
Download the training activity, Assess, develop and refine your complaint handling strategy as featured in the Fenman training manual; Complaint handling for positive outcomes