CUSTOMER COMPLAINT?
We do once in a while receive customer complaint with regards with our food products. It can be if we manage a restaurant or food services or retail food products.
This is common! Not all customer will be happy with our products.
Handling customer complaint can be tedious.
I am specifically, share with you Tips on How To Reply To A Customer Complaint.
With this step by step tips will make your complaint reply more systematic and your customer will be able to get the results and reply from the food company within the time frames.
Sometimes, an unhappy customer will complaint direct to the media or social media. If this happens it can just go viral and somehow will caused detrimental to your company image.
I had managed 100+ of customer complaints during my working days and also while into the food and beverage business. This is how I set up the Standard Operating Procedure for ISO 9000 under the Quality Management.
I realized also some claims are not genuine as they one free supply of food products or compensation in terms of money. Some cases are genuine due to production error.
LET ME SHARE WITH YOU ……
TIPS ON HOW TO REPLY TO A CUSTOMER COMPLAINT
STEP 1
- When you first receive the complaint , do have a proper format forms with date, time, product name, location of incident and also the reasons of complaint.
- Records all data in the forms: it can be electronic or written paper.
STEP 2
- Once received the complaint, immediately written reply to the customer and by acknowledging the complaint received and to be feedback within 3 working days.
- Then follow up with phone calls to the customer to get acknowledgement that he/she have receive reply from the food company.
STEP 3
- Marketing department / management / Quality Assurance / Owner need to take action on this matter and do a “Traceability Test” on the product complaint.
- If there are any sample done for “Shelf-life Retention can be check against the complaint product using the same date of production.
- There are few category of Food Safety complaint : Chemical , Microbiological and Physical. Check that the complaint falls into which category?
- Few category of complaint also : Genuine or Not Genuine.
STEP 4
- Further investigation need to be conducted base on the “Traceability Study” and also if you have the retention samples for checking.
- To confirm if the complaint is genuine or fake.
- Remember that customer need to be reply within 3 working days.
STEP 5
- Do a report and reply in written format to the customer.
- Email to customer and follow up with phone calls.
STEP 6
- If a genuine customer is not happy, set a meeting and meet-up to discuss on the solution.
- For a fake customer, also reply to them and tell them that the complaint report is fake and provide with a Supportive document to show that the product has been adulterated.
This tips will help you to manage your Customer Complaint in A Professional Way!
