Complaint management; a complaint is a chance

Integral complaint management means that all employees in an organisation realise what the power of complaints is. Corporate culture is essential. Does an employee think of a complaint as being something frightening or does he see that the customer gives him a chance to improve? The Dutch quality mark IKM3000 helps organisations to organize their complaint management system.

A complaint is a gift. I think it's a horrible sentence, but it's true. A customer bothers to let an organisation know what he thinks of the products or services from that organisation. He invests his time to inform the organisation. So, it's a gift.

Companies should pay a lot of attention to their complaint management. Good complaint management contributes to customer loyalty. If you succeed in giving a good solution to a customer, chances are high he becomes a bigger fan of your brand than he was before he had a complaint. This can be measured through surveys. Ask the customer how high chances are of him recommending your brand to friends and family. This score is called NPS (Net Promotor Score).

IKM3000

In the Netherlands there is a quality mark for integral complaint management. This mark is called IKM3000. The 3 zeros in its name represent these steps of complaint management:

1. Welcoming all complaints. Open all doors! This means that organisations should make it possible for customers to file a complaint in different ways: through mail, e-mail, phone etcetera.

2. Correct handling of complaints. Customers should get an answer to their complaint with the right content. Empathetic capacities of the complaint handler are very important here. Of course not all customers get exactly what they want, but the way you tell them is essential.

3. Third is the biggest challenge for most organisations: learning from the complaints they received. Complaints give a lot of information that help organisations to evaluate their products and processes. Organisations need a good system for complaint registration so they can analyze their complaints. This is especially needed when organisations receive great numbers of complaints.

How to obtain the quality mark?

The quality mark IKM3000 is meant for organisations in the Netherlands. It was developed parallel to the international ISO 10002 standards of complaint handling.

It starts with a pre-audit by an independent auditor. He interviews dozens of employees in the company and studies documents from the organisation. Afterwards a report is presented which contains suggestions for improvement. Those changes have to be realized if the organisation wants to obtain the quality mark. After receiving this report the organisation gets a fixed period of time to implement these changes. When the fixed date has come (or sooner if the organisation is ready for the audit before the deadline) the auditor visits the organisation again. Again he studies documents and interviews dozens of employees. The audit can take up to two weeks. Afterwards the organisation knows whether they obtained the quality mark or not.

Corporate culture

It doesn't matter if complaints are handled in a central place within the organisation or the organisation chooses to decentralize this job. It does matter that the total organisation knows the power of complaints. A corporate culture in which employees aren't afraid of complaints is essential for a well-working complaint management system. 

Sources: www.todio.nl