What Is a Customer Complaint Under ISO 10002?

What is a customer complaint under ISO 10002?

Under ISO 10002, a complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction communicated to an organisation about its products, or about the complaint-handling process itself, that calls for a response or resolution, whether explicit or implicit. Every complaint is, in effect, a gift to the company.

Customer complaints matter for three reasons:

• They give management a direct signal on staff performance.
• They point to the areas of the firm that need improvement.
• They are the clearest indicators of firm performance.

Customers after a purchase fall into three groups:

• Very satisfied, recommending the products and services (the brand's favourites).
• Dissatisfied, complaining customers (the brand's least favoured).
• Not happy or satisfied, but silent.

Most organisations act on the first two groups but do nothing to study the silent third group. Reaching every silent customer is not possible. But if that third group represents a large share of customers, the following questions matter a great deal.

How many times have you silently left a brand in favour of another? How many times have you passed on a complaint to the brand you were unhappy with? If we treat this silent third group as the largest untapped potential, there are two things to do:

• When a process falls below our own standard, act before the customer walks away or becomes dissatisfied.
• Define clearly what the standard is and what the goal is, and put in place the channels that let customers tell us how satisfied they are or report a problem. Examples include a post-sale satisfaction survey or a phone number the customer can call immediately with a concern or with praise.

Complaints can be grouped into three main categories:

• Absolute complaints: the most common type from the organisation's perspective. These problems have to be resolved. Their impact becomes obvious only when they are left unresolved: the customer links the problem to the organisation's image and spreads the complaint socially.
• Surprise complaints: issues whose resolution is met with clear appreciation by the customer. From the business's perspective, they earn a positive position in the customer's mind.
• Structural complaints: complaints that point to a structural change inside the firm. Once reviewed, they can drive internal changes and offer useful input for other services.

Research on customer loyalty and satisfaction has set out clear reasons why organisations should take this seriously:

• Only 10% of customers pass on their complaint; the remaining 90% leave without informing the organisation.
• Most complaining customers will continue to do business with the firm if their complaint is resolved.
• A customer with a complaint shares it with 9 other people.
• 10% of those onward listeners share the complaint with another 27 people.
• Satisfied customers whose complaints were resolved share that story with 3 or 4 others.
• A complaining customer is always more valuable than a silent but unhappy one.
• The cost of acquiring a new customer is 5 to 6 times the cost of retaining an existing one.
• The lifetime value of a loyal customer to the firm is 10 times the value of any single purchase.
• Customer service must operate on the principle of "they are the priority".

If acquiring each new customer costs 10 TL, 1,000 TL, or 10,000 TL, losing each one takes 10 seconds, and solving that loss takes at least 10 years. Running a documented customer complaint system in your firm delivers several benefits:

• Customer retention: adopting the management system raises your ability to keep customers active.
• Brand reputation: implementing and certifying the complaint-handling system shows partners and customers real commitment to their satisfaction and demonstrates that the firm has processes ready to investigate, evaluate, and review issues. It also shows that you value your business and your customers, and that your management system operates at a higher level than comparable competitors.
• Operational efficiency: implementation and certification help you understand trends that shape a consistent approach to customer queries, remove root causes of problems, and refine your firm's operations.
• Improved internal communication and relationships: the customer-focused approach to resolution supports employees in working alongside customers more effectively.
• Flexibility: the standard aligns with ISO 9001:2008 and supports the firm in raising its profile and its operational performance.
• Continual improvement: the ongoing analysis and evaluation of complaint patterns establishes the foundation for identifying where further improvement is possible.