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Archive for the ‘Customer Complaint’ Category

As a professional in the computer reseller business, you need to create strong recourse policies to handle any customer complaints. If these policies are clear and in place, you can have satisfied customers and a good reputation even if you run into snags along the way.

Elements of Computer Reseller Business Recourse Policies

The most effective recourse policies give the customer a sense of total control. Listen to concerns, apologize for any inconveniences and quickly fix the problem. Taking action in this way will help build a positive relationship in the computer reseller business and give a customer the opportunity to get his needs best met.

A Good Advisor

Consulting an advisor can help a computer reseller business build its reputation. Choose someone that has a strong presence in the community and put the advisor’s name on all brochures, on the website and on the letterheads. Customers will trust you more as a business connected with a well-respected community leader.

The Better Business Bureau

Joining the Better Business Bureau or another similar community group is also important for a computer reseller business. But do more than just join; attend meetings and activities to gain insight into how to better deal with customers and run your business.

Employee Involvement

Employees handling customers on a daily basis need to be involved in the development and execution of recourse policies. You can get valuable information and feedback from employees. Some team members might be overworked or may be in need of new supplies or critical tools. Open communication will make employees comfortable with the sharing process, and they will work harder to find solutions before they think about complaining.

Customer recourse policies are vital to every computer reseller business. Responding to customer complaints quickly and efficiently and making yourself accountable will help promote customer satisfaction.

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To my customer,
I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it!
I may not have the time, but I’ll make it!

Yes, this is the essence of managing customer complaints. A satisfied customer is the lifeline for any business. However, in real life it is not possible to keep your customers happy always. Even the best run businesses face problems or make mistakes which might cause customer dissatisfaction. While unhappy customers will and must complain, customer oriented businesses will and must tend to them! While no one likes a whiner, you must realize that customer complaints can actually be turned to your advantage. Viewing the complaint as an opportunity to gain insight that will help you improve takes you a step closer to ensuring customer loyalty.

Following are the two direct benefits for your business when you take good care of customer complaints:

1. Improvement: There’s no smoke without fire. If a customer is complaining, chances are that there is a real problem somewhere. Listening to the complaint will allow you to look for solutions.

2. Image: When you provide quick solutions, it shows your respect for the customer and makes him or her feel valued. In turn, the customer believes that you can be relied upon, even when things go wrong. What more can you ask for?

But, there is a third, much larger benefit that effective complaint handling can bring to your business. Research proves that customers who had problems that were satisfactorily solved are generally much more loyal than those who are simply happy with your product. So, how do you go about converting a complaining customer into a captive one?

Pay Attention: The best way to make dejected customers feel good is by listening to them. This shows that you care. Be friendly, polite, and helpful; and try your best to solve the problem. Even if a problem is not completely solved, the fact that your business did everything to help will make the customer feel much better about it. Sometimes you may find it difficult to help irate customers especially when the problem is not caused from your side – no matter what, grin and bear it, because the customer is always right.

Offer a Solution: Try offering a solution, always. If you cannot fix the problem right away, at least let them know that you are trying. Or choose between the following options:

1. Replace – Offer a replacement for a defective product. If an exact replacement is not available, suggest an alternative model. This might cost you a bit, but you get to keep your customer.
2. Refund – If a customer is disappointed with your product or service, he may want a refund. While this means loss of revenue, it may be the best solution at the time. In case of a minor complaint, a partial refund may douse the fire.
3. Discount – Sometimes you can offer the customer discount coupons that could be redeemed on their next purchase. This will ensure that they return to you, while also minimizing financial loss.
4. Apologize – An apology works like a charm almost always. In fact, do this first! It can be a verbal regret for minor problems, or a written apology for bigger issues. Don’t let your ego stand in the way.

While we’ve given you a bird’s eye view, books like ‘Resolve customer complaints’, ‘Dealing with customer complaints’ and ’6 ways to benefit from customer complaints’ are great for gaining further insight.

Finally, we leave you with a thought from Peter Drucker. “The single most important thing about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer.”

Background

The company was experiencing an increase in the number of customer complaints and an increase in the cost of processing them and we were hired to analyze the current situation and develop recommendations to increase the effectiveness of the process of administering and resolving the complaints.

Identify Customer Requirements

A consultant was assigned to the design of customer service systems and complaint processes, and who had done extensive work in QFD (Quality Function Deployment), which is a methodology that analyzes the needs of the customer and integrates them with the company processes to ensure the needs are met.

The first task was to identify what the customers’ requirements were for complaint handling and how well customers felt their complaints were resolved. This involved conducting interviews with customers who had filed a recent complaint.Customers were asked to talk about their experience with the complaint handling process.

The purpose of this exercise was to:

determine positive and negative incidents in the complaint handling process

determine important information regarding the customer’s feelings about the resolution of his/her complaint

identity the main reasons for deficiencies in the process

develop suggestions on how to improve the system.

Review Existing Complaint Process

The review of the process started` by developing a complaint management questionnaire that was administered to all complaint handlers. This provided a view of the complaint handling process across all departments of the company and at the same time it identified areas for improvement.
An operations study was performed on the current complaint handling process.

A Service plan was developed that detailed the complete current process for a customer reporting a complaint to the company. A Serviceplan shows a cross sectional view of what is happening to all participants of the process at each step. This includes
the customer, front line personnel,
support personnel,
other departments, and
outside regulatory agencies.

With the Service plan it is easy to see escalation points and interfaces to other personnel and departments. This is critical information to understand when streamlining a process.

Other aspects of the process were analyzed, such as where do the customers call first to report a complaint, how do they find the number to call, and how many calls did they have to make before the complaint was resolved.

Analysis of Complaint Data

A complete analysis of complaint data for the past four years was conducted. Starting at the beginning of this process, a review was conducted of what information was being captured from the interaction between the complaint handler and the customer.

The review continued by investigating how the complaint data itself was captured and logged into a complaint database.We also looked at what types of reports were generated from complaint data and the frequency of distribution.

We also analyzed the claims data, searching for potential causes for the claims and the trend and frequency of claims. The data revealed certain tendencies that indicate that a new method for the administration of claims would have positive effects.

Recommendations

Aa synthesis was developed of the analysis, investigations, and review of the activities associated with the claims process in the holding company.
Based on this, several recommendations emerged which were customized to the specific needs of each of the subsidiaries.

The recommendations included:

establish a Centralized Center

negotiate with the regulatory agencies in various states so they can direct the customers with complaints to the Center

establish stronger links with the service recovery process and the Center

establish diagnostic activities to prevent future complaints

implement prevention planning

establish targets for complaint reductions

The new system for administration and resolution of complaints has resulted in:

more effective and timely resolution of customers’ complaints

focus on prevention and avoidance of recurring problems

integration of the different work units involved in the claims process

reduction of costs associated with the handling of claims

increased customer satisfaction

It is said that 91% of people don’t complain. They prefer to obtain their revenge by not buying from a business that has given them an inferior product or a poor service.

They have a passive power and they know it!

The following is a true story – only the name of the business has been changed

Blooming Buds was a well established garden centre on the outskirts of a growing town. Two years before it closed it had expanded to include a caf

The vision of WellStar Health System is to deliver world class healthcare through an integrated network of hospitals, physicians and services. WellStar Health System includes Cobb, Douglas, Kennestone, Paulding and Windy Hill Hospitals.

In order to engage all departments and better serve customers, WellStar identified the need for an enterprise-wide complaint tracking system. Originally implemented at WellStar in 2001, the Everest software was expanded and re-launched in 2006. The goal was a coordinated process for patient relations at all five of WellStar’s hospitals in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Objectives

Changes to the system included three important new elements:

oRe-organized concern types and sub-categories for classifying patient concerns.

oDetailed classifications using terminology consistent with WellStar’s existing patient satisfaction surveys, by Press Ganey.

oAn online patient feedback complaint form on the WellStar intranet to route new concerns automatically to the hospital’s patient relations coordinator.

Before implementing the electronic patient feedback form, the process was paper-based and inefficient. Now, patient feedback can be quickly submitted by any clinical staff.
Plus, the form includes a checkbox for resolved concerns so that clinical staff has a way to quickly document a Service Recovery where the employee has resolved a patient’s
concerns by taking immediate action.

Hospital staff is encouraged to take immediate action when a Service Recovery opportunity is possible. With this in mind, Everest was configured to support the staff in being patient-focused with an easy, paperless way to document those opportunities. Patient Relations Coordinators can view these results with real-time reports and charts.

Challenges

A Lynk Software project manager worked on-site with the WellStar team to plan a smooth transition to the new Everest database. The original database was archived, and a new, improved configuration was designed to accommodate multiple hospital locations. “We took great care to ensure the best evolution for users while introducing a new data model and many new features,” noted Michael Herzog, Project Manager.

Results

oPatient Relations utilizes real-time reports and charts for single or multiple locations including detailed classifications based on department and cost center
data.

oWellStar implemented one process for tracking patient complaints across five hospitals with user access specific for each location.

oA paperless process at WellStar with ownership and due dates improves visibility and productivity.

WellStar Health System

http://www.wellstar.org

Everest: Customer Focused Quality(TM) by Lynk Software, Inc.

http://www.lynksoftware.com

Press Ganey

http://www.pressganey.com

Dell has made its mark in the market share with its different models of computers and printers and its quarterly profits speak for themselves. But when it comes to customer service, the company has been facing a certain number of bad reviews and complaints. In the recent few months, different complaints have been recorded against various models of Dell computers.

Mike Guerin, a Dell customer who had purchased Dimension 8100 faced certain problems in the machine which was still under the warranty period. During his work on it, the computer failed to turn on. To get the problem resolved, he spent several hours trying to talk to different service technicians but his complaint was unheeded by the representatives. Finally, he was told by a representing technician that he would receive the spare parts for his computer model through a shipment from Dell. However, that was the last correspondence that was made with Dell as he never received any shipment or any help from them.

Another complaint on the same line was from a different customer. His model was Dimension 8300. He faced problems with the software and after consultation with the company was advised to reinstall the operating system. Reinstallation resulted in loss of hard disk space, monitor failure to work and several other such problems. The customer reported his complaint to the company several times but his efforts were in vain. He stated in his review that “Customer care should be customer, DONT care.”

Gerard Clear, another customer who wanted to buy Dimension 2400, rang up the company to get a particular model of the Dell printer and computer range. His name and address were noted down by one of the operators. On persistent attempts in trying to contact the operator, his calls were constantly forwarded to the operator’s voice mail. Finally, it was only after he left a message threatening the operator that he would report to the head of the department, that he got a call from the operator. But to the customers’ surprise, he never heard from the company after the last call. He tried to voice his complaint to the general manager of the company but got no response for his queries. After the frustration and bad experience with the company, he decided to drop the plan of buying a Dell machine.

Terri, a customer who purchased a model of Dimension Inspiron 2650 had to face a different problem. Whenever he would try to switch the system on, it would freeze displaying a long ragged tag of red color at the bottom of the screen. He tried calling the Dell customer service for help but his problem was not attended to by any customer representative. The customer had earlier purchased three different models of computers from the company and experienced the same problem with them all. He recently purchased Dimension Inspiron 8500 and is still facing the same problem with this model and ended up giving a bad review to the company. One consumer in his review has this to say about of Dell computer models “in the past five years, I purchased four Dell Dimension computers. I will never buy another and will strive to convince others to do the same.”