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Answers to Readers' Questions on Total Quality:
Complaints
The following 32 comments and questions have been sent in. They are listed according to date.
List of first 10 items
- Source of information on customer complaints
- How can customer complaints benefit a company?
- How can a company recover its reputation?
- Do companies pay for shipping costs on returned items?
- What is company does not do audits?
- How to handle complaints?
- What are types of comp[laints?
- How do you complain about poor services and goods?
- How to achieve zero complaints?
- Do you know about online business?
Source of information on customer complaints
Question
November 2, 2009
On your site you state:
For every formal complaint you receive, there may be 10 other customers who were dissatisfied and who felt like complaining, but who never did. Instead, they change brands and tell their friends of the dissatisfaction. It is said that an unhappy customer will tell 13 people about his or her dissatisfaction. That is not the type of word-of-mouth advertising you want.
Could you please provide a source for this information? I would like to use it in a presentation, but need a source.
Jane - USA
18611
Answer
In 1974 the White House's Office of Consumer Affairs commissioned a report called the TARP study which included these statistics on customer complaints. The company doing this--Tarp (www.tarp.com)--has published other reports on customer satisfaction issues for both the Government and industry.
The "13 people" statistic is cited in a number of books on Total Quality Management, based on the original Tarp study.
How can customer complaints benefit a company?
Question
April 29, 2009
how can customer compalaints benefit an organisation?'since an organisation will always receive complaints,its doesn't pay attention about them?
ranju - Nepal
17672
Answer
If the company works to satisfy the complaint of an irate customer, such that the person is satisfied, then they will actually gain in their reputation.
But also, hearing complaints about the product or service should allow the company to make corrections and improve what they deliver to their customers. It is the angry customer who does not complain that can cause the most horrible and not allow the company to improve.
An organization that does not pay attention to complaints feels that they have a monopoly in the market place. But as soon as another organization that does a better job starts to compete with them, they may very well go out of business.
How can a company recover its reputation?
Question
January 29, 2009
if the company is facing a serious bad word of mouth by the customers how can it recover soon so as to attain the customer it might loss back,and how can the company know that its name is beeing spoiled out there.
Obogisitswe - Botswana
17175
Answer
If a customer purchases a inferior product or receives rude service, he will often tell others about his bad experience. That is why it is so important to give good service to customers and try to satisfy their expectations.
It can take a long time to rectify the situation, since even if the company starts to sell quality products and provide good service, many may not be aware of the improvement.
What is needed is a complete turn-around in company attitude and an effort to become the best in its field in order to regain its reputation. The Japanese at one time were known for making inferior products, but their reputation changed when they started manufacturing superior products. The bad view took years to change.
But if a company or store acts rude and insulting to a customer, they may never come back, even if the company has changed its ways.
Do companies pay for shipping costs on returned items?
Question
February 23, 2008
Your writings on customer satsifaction were found to be helpful. If a customer is disatsified with a product for any reason, the first thing they do is request to return the product to get their money back. Should the company reply yes and refund everything including the original shipping cost paid to send the order to them?
zeinab - Canada
15421
Answer
Many companies will refund everything, including the original shipping cost. This results in high satisfaction of customers who will not hesitate buying from the company again.
These companies also keep statistics on what percentage of products are returned where they must also pay for all the shipping costs. They add that amount--which may be a very small amount--to the original cost.
They also keep track of customers that often return items and have the option of refusing to do business with such a person.
If many customers return a specific product, it is wise for the company to pull that product from their catalog.
What is company does not do audits?
Question
September 23, 2007
WHAT HAPPEN IF THE COMPANY DOES NOT DO THE INTERNAL AUDITS ON SCHEDULE OR THEY ARE NOT AT ALL?
SIPHO - South Africa
14431
Answer
If a company is required to do internal audits to maintain their ISO 9000 certification, and they do not fulfill the requirement, they may lose that certification.
If a company had decided to do internal audits as part of a quality program, and they do not do the audits on time, the manager in charge of those audits should be held responsible. It is possible that upper management had decided to save money by not doing the audits or that other factors resulted in the change of policy.
In either case, it is worthwhile for a company to make sure their quality is sufficient through the use of audits.
How to handle complaints?
Question
September 11, 2007
HOW TO HANDLE COMPLAINTS?
ARE THE CUSTOMERS HAPPY WITH THE COMPLAINT RESOLVING PROCESS?
LESEDI - Botswana
14381
Answer
A company should listen to a customer's complaints and then agree to correct the problem. They should satisfy the customer, even if it means a loss in profit for that transaction. If the company uses information on complaints to correct the way they do business, they will actually increase in profits in the future.
If the customer has the complaint resolved in a positive manner, the customer will be happy. But if the complaint is not resolved--even if it is somewhat a fault of the customer--there is the risk that the person will tell many other people about it, bringing bad publicity to the company.
What are types of comp[laints?
Question
September 11, 2007
I WANT TO KNOW VARIOUS TYPES OF CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ?
WHY DO THESE COMPLAINTS ARISE ?
WHAT IS THE NEED TO HANDLE SUCH COMPLAINTS
LESEDI - Botswana
14380
Answer
Customers will complain about a product or item they bought that was defective. They may also complain about poor, slow or rude service they have received from salespeople.
Some customers are repeat complainers who are trying to get something from the company. The motto of a business should be: "The customer is always right...once." That means that the complaint must be taken care of, unless the person has a reputation for complaining multiple times.
Handling a complaint of a good customer will result in improving the company practices and having a happy, repeat customer.
How do you complain about poor services and goods?
Question
September 11, 2007
Please explain and give me tips for speeach when we conduct a meeting and would like to complain about the services and product which not meeet our requirement.
Best Regards,
krich - Thailand
14379
Answer
Before you meet with people to complain about services or a product that did not meet your requirement, you need to define to yourself what you plan to achieve from the meeting. You may want to have a corrective action taken, such that you will get the goods that meet your specifications. Or you may complain because you want a refund for what you bought. Or you may simply want an apology.
Always be polite and realize that the person you are speaking to may not be responsible for the problem. Do not make it a personal attack on the person or show anger. Instead present yourself firmly, as if you mean business. Say something like, "I am very dissatisfied with the service and product I received. I assumed that a good company like yours would have quality goods. I would like to either get my money back or have the problem resolved."
If they want your business, they will try to accommodate you. But some companies have so much business or are so poorly run, that they don't care if you do complain. In such a case, it is good to have something to back up your complaint. If they don't respond, you can threaten to report them to government business authorities or such. Unfortunately, if a company does not care, even that will not help.
But in most cases, a complaint will result in good action.
How to achieve zero complaints?
Question
August 2, 2007
Our company objectives of customer complaint is zero customer complaint,
My question is what are the action taken to achieve this zero customer complaints.
Evan - Philippines
14144
Answer
You need to obtain customer feedback in order to find out what your company is doing well and areas that need improvement. A good idea is to have a suggestion/comment form that the customers can fill out. Some companies offer a small reward to encourage suggestions.
Some comments will be positive and some suggestions may sound like possible complaints. You can then correct that problem are and give the customer feedback.
This type of communication will soon result in minimal complaints and will improve your business. Note that zero complaints is impossible, because some customers simply like to complain for no reason.
Do you know about online business?
Question
June 13, 2007
Do you know about business online?
If yes can you help me?
yusaf - England
13928
Answer
We have a section on e-commerce that may help you at:
http://www.school-for-champions.com/ecommerce.htm
Summary
Hopefully, this reader feedback has helped provide information about TQM issues.
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