CM-MA-308 Handling of Customer Complaints

Table of Contents

1. Purpose
2. General
3. Responsibility
4. Procedure
5. Flowchart
6. References

1. Purpose

The purpose of this procedure is to describe the requirements for review of and response to complaints by customers.

2. General

A complaint in terms of this procedure is any statement of dissatisfaction with the service(s) provided by Company which is formally conveyed, either in writing or verbally, to a manager or senior staff member including, but not limited to, Sales Managers.

This procedure is restricted to complaints that are made formally, written or verbally, so as to distinguish these from minor service difficulties that affect a customer but will be dealt with as a part of the normal management routine within departments or project task forces.

This procedure will therefore come into operation when a customer feels that routine administration has failed to properly address a complaint or that the complaint is of such a nature that it is necessary to bring the matter directly to the attention of the General Manager.

Throughout this procedure reference to the General Manager, shall also mean that a person or persons may be delegated to act on behalf of the General Manager in respect of a particular complaint.

3. Responsibility

The Project Manager shall ensure that every customer is informed how to lodge a formal complaint when the customer feels dissatisfied with the services provided by Company.

It is the responsibility of any person receiving a formal written or verbal complaint regarding the performance of Company personnel, systems or processes are to bring that complaint immediately to the attention of the General Manager, with a copy to the responsible Project Manager, Senior Program Manager, Sales Manager and the Quality Assurance Manager.

The General Manager shall be responsible for ensuring that all such complaints are thoroughly investigated, where appropriate, corrective action taken and that the originator of the complaint (within client's organization) is properly informed of the outcome of the complaint.

The General Manager shall be assisted in responding to a complaint by either one of the Project Directors or Senior Program Manager, for issues directly related to the execution of a project or the Vice President of Sales or the appropriate Department Manager for issues which are specific to the function of that department.

The General Manager or his designer is responsible to ensure that this procedure is followed and for maintaining the customer complaints file.

If the nature of the complaint is such that action is required by a level of authority beyond that exercised by the General Manager, then the complaint must be brought to the attention of a person who can exercise such authority. The General Manager is responsible for ensuring that, if necessary, this upward delegation takes place.

During the investigation of a complaint the General Manager may seek the assistance of other managers and staff to establish the actual events that resulted in customer dissatisfaction. It is the responsibility of all persons approached to provide all necessary assistance to ensure that the actual cause of the failure is identified and can therefore be addressed.

The Quality Assurance Manager shall receive copies of all customer complaints and evaluate them annually.

4. Procedure

4.1 Receipt of Complaint

Upon receipt of a complaint from a customer a written summary of the complaint, together with any available supporting or background information shall be communicated directly to the General Manager with a copy to the responsible Project Manager, Senior Program Manager, Sales Manager and Quality Assurance Manager (Attachment 1 may be used for this purpose).

4.2 Registration of Complaint

The General Manager shall ensure central registration of all received formal complaints to enable control/follow-up of proper and timely handling and a yearly evaluation. The following shall be administered: complaint number, date of receipt, genuine reason: yes/no, nonconformance report identification, date of close-out (on The Master List Customer Complaints Form, Attachment 2 may be used for this purpose). The complaint form may be filed for more detailed information.

4.3 Misunderstanding or Misinterpretation

The General Manager shall satisfy himself that a genuine failure is the cause of dissatisfaction and not the result of a misunderstanding or the misinterpretation of an acceptable occurrence on the part of the customer.

If the General Manager establishes that such misunderstanding or misinterpretation has occurred and following the communication of these facts to the customer agreement to this effect is reached then no further action will be taken in respect of this procedure.

4.4 Immediate Action

When the General Manager is satisfied that the complaint represents an instance of genuine dissatisfaction on the part of a customer, then he/she will take all necessary steps to establish:

1. The true nature of the failure(s) which resulted in dissatisfaction.

2. The apparent cause of the failure(s).

3. The consequence(s) of the failure(s).

Having established the above, the General Manager will take any immediate action which will mitigate the failure to ensure that the consequences are thereby as limited as possible.

This immediate action together with (a) through (c) above shall be communicated to the customer.

4.5 Investigation

Subsequently the General Manager shall undertake, or cause to be undertaken, an investigation of the actual cause of the failure together with recommendations regarding any modification to systems, processes, procedures or individual working practices which will ensure that the failure cannot reoccur. The results of the investigation and its recommendations shall be presented within a written 'Customer Complaints Action Report'.

4.6 Nonconformances

Should the investigation discover that the cause of, or a contributing factor towards, the failure resulted from a deviation from or an omission to Company's quality assurance procedures then notice of a nonconformance shall be brought to the attention of the Quality Assurance Manager in accordance with the procedure concerning Quality Assurance Audits (ref. 6.1).

4.7 Corrective Action

The Quality Assurance Manager shall determine/verify evidence of the reported nonconformance. When objective evidence is found a formal nonconformance shall be raised and discussed with the responsible manager to agree on corrective actions to be taken.

4.8 Customer Agreement

The General Manager or responsible Sales Manager shall review the results of the investigation and any subsequent actions with the customer. Any disagreement by the customer with the report should be further investigated and the report modified accordingly. This process is repeated until an agreement is reached.

4.9 Further Action

The General Manager, following the completion of the investigation shall determine what, if any, further action is to be taken with regard to the individuals, processes or procedures involved in the failure.

4.10 Distribution and Close-Out

The General Manager shall distribute the report, recommendations, an indication of actions taken and notice of customer agreement as necessary.

Distribution to:

5. Flowchart

6. References

7. Attachments

1. Customer Complaints Registration Form (BN-U-315 Typical Example)

2. Master List Customer Complaints (BN-U-316 Typical Example)

CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS REGISTRATION FORM

MASTER LIST CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS