Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

The important thing is that you monitor, and address, complaints, so either way could work.

If the business grows (or shrinks) significantly over time, then your method would overstate complaints, making a formula that also takes into account the amount of business more accurate.

If business doesn't vary much, then ignoring the volume of transactions would probably be fine.

Truthfully, I think coming up with a complaint percentage (taking into account the amount of business) would be better.

Hopefully the example you used are truly examples only, as any business that has such a high percentage of complaints is likely in trouble (unless they have a government given monopoly or some other protected market).

Lack of complaints doesn't mean you're doing it right...always.

Complaints are a excellent opportunity to engage your customer. Even if you can resolve the current issue, the fact that you took the time usually will equate to more business.

Michael

Hi Omarfdawood,

Peter and Michael are quite correct. Many organisations fall into the trap of setting targets for reducing the number of COMPLAINTS whereas the correct focus should be on reducing the number of problems EXPERIENCED by customers.

Here’s the problem: If you set “complaint” targets, COMPLAINTS begin to be viewed as a bad thing. The company and the staff become resentful about dealing with them, and the learning that complaints can bring begins to be missed. I even came across one organisation that so-penalised its customer relations department for exceeding the number of targeted complaints that the only way they could succeed was to “busy-out” the phones every day as soon at their “quota” had been reached.

Here’s another problem: Only about 5% of customers who experience a problem actually complain to an organisation’s head office about it. About 45% may complain further down the line, at a retail branch or in the field. About 50% won’t complain to anyone. (See industry-wide research by organisations such as TARP, CCMC and CTMA). On this basis, your 20 complaints actually represents up to 400 customers who may have experienced problems – that’s more than 6 problems for each transition. (As Peter says – hopefully your example is not your actual figure).

So here’s my suggestion: Focus your efforts in four areas:
1/ Actively encourage (and make it easy for) customers who experience problems to complain.
2/ Respond quickly to those customers who complain by resolving their issues.
3/ Learn from their experiences to find the root cause (or systemic failures) that are behind the problems
4/ Take remedial actions, so that ultimately the number of problems they experience is reduced.

Yes, this is an ongoing process. In terms of measuring your results, you are probably doing the right thing already. By normalising the number of complaints by the number of transactions (or something similar) your measurements will self-adjust with growth. But don’t let this measure drive the business to “busy-out” the phones and “shut-out” the customer. If you shut-out the customer you’ll end up with zero-transactions and of course – zero-complaints.

I hope this helps.

Paul

If your goal is to lessen the relative percentage of complaints, then I agree that you must solicit feedback as well as track incoming messages from customers. The vast majority of customers will simply defect rather than complain.

Reaching out needn't be a big, expensive effort. It can be done via brief "pulse" surveys executed on a regular basis among samples of your client base. Through this feedback, you may be able to discern trends in product performance or service that are contributing to the complaints you're hearing. You also will be able to identify dissatisfaction among clients who may not have complained, which will allow you to proactively address the dissatisfied ratings.

Also, when a complaint is received, the support people should categorize the type and nature of the complaint, as well as any corrective action that was attempted and whether the loop was closed with the customer. Analysis of this data will yield more insights about what is dissatisfying customers than looking at a ratio of complaints to transactions. For example, in how many instances was the product defective? How many of the complaints were due to unrealistic expectations of the clients? How many were due to unpleasant interactions during the transaction, etc.

This level of detail will help you to identify causes of dissatisfaction, which in turn can inform solutions.

Good luck.

I suggest you read the information presented in Gallup Press' new book...
Human Sigma by Fleming and Asplund

its not the complaints that count, its how you handle the complaints. And, in some instances- customers with complaints handled in the right way become attached to the company EMOTIONALLY and are actually more LOYAL than customers who get perfect service.

Frank Hurtte

I agree with the others that setting targets for the number of complaints may not contribute much to improve the quality of the service. My advice is to consider every complaint as a free advice. The customer took the effort to let you know about something that went wrong and that is very positive. You should thank him for that.

Communicate that the complaint will be solved (if possible) and will be used to avoid the same will happen again. Examine the whole delivery process and the logic of the interaction moments and reasons that complaints arise during this moments. Use this info to improve (from the perspective of the customer) the delivery process. Welcome complaints and turn them into something good!

Omar,

Things are rarely as simple as they seem at first glance.
Are all complaints of the same nature and grievance to customers?
Is the processing time and resolution same in each and every case and are customers the same?Probably not.
So one thing is monitoring complaints classified in some relevant way, another is monitoring time to resolve the problems versus adopted solutions and still another checking how complaints and the way you have coped with them impact the way your customers behave.

I once knew a multi-million income consumer-facing company that prided itself on it's customer service. So much so that the chief executive personally spoke to every customer who ever made a complaint. This had the cultural result that the company realised how serious customer relations should be taken such that you always gave good service otherwise the customer could be talking to the boss of your company about what you had done.

I'd like to join the chorus and add that you should be looking to find the root cause behind complaints and addressing those.

Simply trying to mask the number of complaints is going to fix nothing.

When transactions = zero and complaints = 0% nobody will be happy.

Encourage complaints. Make it easy to complain. Solicit complaints (because many consumers will suffer in silence in the belief there's no point complaining...) by calling consumers to get feedback.

Use every bit of information to address quality issues and gaps between the brand promise and brand delivery. (Maybe think about a six-sigma campaign).

When that gap is closed, you'll have solved the complaints issue.

ChrisB