Manage Complaints and Improve Customer Service

Organisations can improve customer service by ensuring that they effectively manage complaints.

Hans Grefte, product development director at a case management systems firm, told MyCustomer.com that the recession had increased cost-cutting measures at the expense of customer service levels.

This focus on cost-cutting has resulted in an increasing number of customers publishing their complaints on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as well as internet forums.

It is an organisation's responsibility to discover these complaints and attempt to address them in order to minimise any potential damage to reputation, which is likely to lead to less sales.

Mr Grefte pointed to research which revealed that a customer will tell on average nine people about their good experience if they complaints are dealt with in an appropriate manner.

The number of people told is dramatically increased, however, if a customer's complaint is ignored or not handled properly and this could have seriously negative implications for an organisation.

Complaints management systems can automatically monitor online activity relating to an organisation by informing managers about any mentions, which allows them to take pre-emptive action to resolve the situation.

Mr Grefte told MyCustomer.com: "Meaningful and actionable reports need to be generated from the data, allowing particular weaknesses and areas of concern to be swiftly identified and addressed, minimising any potential damage as grievances go viral and online sympathisers join the crusade."

Organisations can improve customer service and reduced their reliance on complaints management systems by applying systems thinking to their processes and points of transaction.

Systems thinking can enable people to view their organisation from a customer's perspective as well as from a broader point of view by focusing on their company as a whole system rather than just various departments.

Experienced performance improvement consulting professionals are training in the understanding and practical application of systems thinking which can reduce mistakes and eliminating waste at all levels.

Performance improvement consulting professionals use systems thinking to analyse and organisation and redesign processes in order to deliver outstanding results in almost any area of business and industry.

Meanwhile, two British airports have introduced holographic staff members in an attempt to make security processes easier to understand and enhance passenger's overall experience.

Manchester and Luton airports are the first in the world to employ such technology, which will be rolled out across all their terminals if the trial is deemed to be successful.


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Himsworth Consultancy is a leading Management Consultancy firm of senior business and peformance improvement consulting professionals that can improve customer service through the application of systems thinking. Click the links to find out more.