Customer complaints are diverse in nature and occur in all types of businesses. A lot depends on how these customer complaints are handled by the company in question. If handled tactfully, this can boost business, but if ignored or mishandled, such issues can become chaotic.
The manner in which a company deals with customer complaints says a lot about how customer-centric they are. That’s because Taking care of customer issues is a task that requires a lot of thought and care. Here are the good practices which will really help in that regard: –
Acknowledge
In case of a complaint, the first thing that any customer-friendly company does is, apologize to the customers for the troubles they had to face. Doing so helps portray the company in a good light. It reflects that the company not only values its customers but also takes ownership of its actions. This will work in the company’s favor and customers will choose to persevere with it.
Analyze the issues as clearly as you can
The very next step that a company must undertake is to properly understand an issue and all aspects of it. This is not only important to help tackle the problem at hand, but also ensure that it does not recur in the future. The more you listen to your customers, the better you will be able to address issues and improve as a whole.
Follow a Code of Conduct
Although having a Code of Conduct is a recent development with businesses, it has already proved to be of great use. Code of Conduct covers various factors such as explicit set of expectations available to different participants, different incidents occurring across different spaces, and a clear response plan for addressing them. Sitting down with a consultant and key personnel within the business to formulate a Code of Conduct will aid companies in resolving issues in quick time, thus keeping problems from growing worse.
This is where you need to know about IS 16677: 2017
The Bureau of Indian Standards has formulated an Indian Standard IS 16677: 2017 ‘Quality Management – Customer satisfaction – Requirement for Complaints Handling in Organizations – Implementation’ that aims at enabling a uniform approach towards complaint handling, one that is both open and responsive. Following the same in a consistent and systematic manner will further aid organizations in improving their responsibility towards continual improvement of products and services.
This standard is available for purchase at various BIS sales outlet and may also be purchased online at www.standardsbis.in. For query in Technical Content of this standard you may contact:
Head Management and Systems Department Bureau of Indian Standards Manak Bhawan, 9, B.S. Zafar Marg New Delhi – 110 002 Email: msd@bis.org.in Telephone/Fax: 011-23231106
Written By: Shalu Varshney, Scientist ‘C’, MSD
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Comments
Title : 2 thoughts on “Are you handling customer complaints in the right way?”
After reading your blog, I find that BIS is not handling customer complaints in the right way – Complaints are never acknowledged; Issues raised in complaints are never analyzed; No code of conduct is followed.
BIS has published two standards
IS 16677: 2017
IS/ISO 10002 : 2004
CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TWO STANDARDS?
Hello,
We acknowledge and appreciate your comments on our blog. It is to inform you that BIS has Definite Public Grievances Redressal Mechanism and Consumer Affairs Department of BIS head quarter strictly follows that.
It may kindly be noted that IS/ISO 10002 is a guidelines standard and is the adoption of ISO standard, whereas IS 16677 is a requirement standard on complaint handling mechanism. Also, IS 16677 was formulated on request of National Consumer Helpline to make it certifiable.
Thank you