Develop a strategic plan
Have a clear, flexible, welcoming and open policy on complaints
A complaint is a gift and you should consider yourself lucky that a customer is prepared to give up valuable time to help you improve your organisation.
Train your staff and management in complaints handling
Give them confidence to tackle the difficult customers and support in their actions. Excellent complaint handling isn't easy and can sometimes be stressful and feel unrewarding. Confirm its importance in providing great customer service.
Give complaining enough priority and authority
Staff should be aware that complaints are a top priority item for your operation, and ANYONE who deals with them must have sufficient authority to resolve them completely.
Ensure that you can process complaints from all sources
Nowadays there are four main ways to complain - in person, by email/internet, by telephone or by mail - and your organisation must be able to handle all of these efficiently.
Set up a process to log and analyse all complaints and share with everyone
One can learn so much about problems with internal processes, training, specific employees/managers, and product - free.