Introduction complaints handling

Complaints are often perceived as unwanted and damaging to a business. If mishandled, they can harm reputation and growth, so the businesses should always deliver quality service to customers to keep complaints minimal and manageable.

Complaints are unavoidable and are a natural and necessary part of business growth, if dealt with correctly, customer complaints can help your organization improve its services and retain customer loyalty.

This course explains why customers may complain to a business and teaches the importance of having a good complaint handling procedure in place.

Understanding why customers complain enables you to identify where improvements may be needed in the services your business provides. Furthermore, knowing how customers expect you to handle their grievances enables you to improve your complaint handling process.

Who is this course for?

The People responsible for handling complaints depends on the type of grievance received. Small, easy to manage complaints can often be dealt with by Frontline staff the same day.

However, larger, more serious issues require staff who have access to the resources necessary for investigating a complaint thoroughly. They also require staff who have the authority to make changes that resolve complaints and give compensation if necessary.

Complaint handling can, therefore, be beneficial for people at any level of a business but is most appropriate for those whose jobs specifically involves handling customer complaints.

You may Be someone at a higher level in customer service, someone in HR, or someone in management.

Whatever your role, this course familiarizes you with best practice procedures for complaints handling and the actions you need to take

Aims of the course

On completion of the course, you will:

• Understand the benefits of dealing with complaints via an effective complaint handling process

• Recognize the reasons people commonly complain to a business and what they may expect to achieve

• Know the three different ways to approach a complaint, Frontline resolution, investigation, and external handling

• Be trained to respond appropriately when receiving complaints in person, over the phone, via email, and on social media

• Know what to do during the investigation stage of complaint handling

• Understand the importance of communicating regularly and clearly with a complaint at every stage of the process

• Know how to send a response to the complainant about the business’s ultimate decision regarding the complaint

• Be able to reflect on the business on the complaint handling process as a whole after handling a complaint

Topics to be covered

• What is a customer complaint?
• Why complaint handling is important
• Why do customers complain
• What customers want from a complaint