A Consumer Complaint Or Customer Complaint

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Consumer complaints are usually informal complaints directly addressed to a company or public service provider, and most consumers manage to resolve problems with products and services in this way, but it sometimes requires persistence.If the grievance is not addressed in a way that satisfies the consumer, the consumer sometimes registers the complaint with a third party such as the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission (in the United States). These and similar organizations in other countries accept for consumer complaints and assist people with customer service issues, as do government representatives like attorneys general. Consumers however rarely file complaints in the more formal legal sense, which consists of a formal legal process.

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Customer complaints are an unfortunate reality no matter what type of business you operate. Dealing with angry or upset customers can be difficult, particularly if your staff has never been given a standard protocol for handling complaints. Teaching your customer service staff how to respond appropriately to complaints and empowering them to offer resolutions will help you retain clients and improve client satisfaction with your services or products. Both supervisor-led programs and programs by companies that offer training services can be helpful in training your customer service staff.

Develop a protocol that addresses common complaints and outlines procedures to record and resolve complaints. Provide a series of resolutions that are acceptable to your company.

Provide customer service staff members with copies of the protocol and hold a training session to help them learn how to respond appropriately to complaints. Begin by explaining how to document and log complaint calls, emails and in-person complaints.

Summarize the basic points of your protocol during the training session. Your protocol might include thanking the customer for contacting the company, apologizing to the customer for any inconvenience, taking detailed information regarding the complaint, investigating the complaint and providing a resolution.

Ask employees to watch a demonstration of several types of customer complaints and service representative responses. Show both good and bad examples of complaint handling. Enlist employees to play the roles of customers and representatives or use an employee training film.

Begin a role-playing exercise by asking staff members to work with supervisors who will play the role of an unhappy customer. Ask staff members to consult the complaint protocol in formulating their responses. Evaluate staff members’ performances and provide feedback.

Hold weekly meetings to discuss customer complaints and problems that the customer service representatives have encountered. If a large number of complaints focus on one particular product or service, discuss the appropriate way to handle these complaints. Use the meetings to inform employees if there are issues with the company’s products or services that might result in higher than normal complaint calls.

Recording staff member responses during training can help employees identify areas in which improvement is needed. ELearn Magazine reports that staff members have an opportunity to evaluate their progress by listening to their own recordings and practicing as often as they want.

Don’t make the mistake of limiting the authority of your customer service representatives to correct problems. Checking with a supervisor or administrators before offering a resolution slows down the complaint process and might make customers even angrier. The Marketing Donut suggests that anyone who deals with complaints must have sufficient authority to resolve them completely.

It’s estimated that a sincere, concerned, and skillful response to a problem can retain the business of about 95 percent of customers who complain. Below are some important points to convey to your employees: Most customers who complain are reasonable. They just want you to take their complaints seriously.They want you to demonstrate concern for their problem. They want you to take interest, pay attention, and show empathy for their predicament. They also want a chance to explain their problem, and they expect a courteous, concerned response.You also need to understand the complaint. Why is the customer complaining? What does the customer really want you to do about it?You may need to investigate a problem as well. This might mean checking records and talking to others in the organization to find out what went wrong.And once the problem has been properly identified, you have to work with the customer to resolve the matter to the customer’s satisfaction.

Sometimes, of course, a complaint can’t be resolved entirely to the customer’s satisfaction. When that’s the case, you should deliver the bad news honestly, pointing out any positive elements, such as alternatives that could meet the customer’s needs just as well.You should also try to make up for the customer’s trouble in some way — especially if it’s not possible to do exactly what the customer wants. Providing something extra to say "We’re sorry; we value your business" often helps repair any relationship damage that might have been caused by the problem.

And always remember to thank customers for alerting the company to problems. We have to be grateful to a customer who takes the time to complain and point out things we’re not doing well. It gives us a chance to improve service and keep the customer.Along with thanking customers for complaints, follow up to make sure that whatever solution was agreed upon has actually been implemented and has solved the problem so that now the customer is happy with the outcome.Finally, and perhaps most important, remember that complaints give us the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and prevent future problems.

TRAINING METHODS

Virtual Reality is a training method that puts the participant in 3-D environment. The three dimensional environment stimulates situations and events that are experienced in the job. The participant interacts with 3-D images to accomplish the training objectives. This type of environment is created to give trainee the impression of physical involvement in an environment. To experience virtual reality, the trainee wears devices, like headset, gloves, treadmills.

Virtual Reality provides trainees with an understanding of the consequences of their actions in the work environment by interpreting and responding to the trainees’ actions through its accessories:

Headset – provides audio and visual information

Gloves – provides tactile information

Treadmills – is used for creating the sense of movement

Sensory devices – transmits how the trainees are responding in the virtual workplace to the computer.This allows the virtual reality (VR) system to respond by changing the environment appropriately.

Behavior Modeling uses the innate inclination for people to observe others to discover how to do something new. It is more often used in combination with some other techniques.

Procedure of Behavior Modeling Technique 

In this method, some kind of process or behavior is videotaped and then is watched by the trainees. Games and simulation section is also included because once the trainees see the videotape, they practice the behavior through role plays or other kind of simulation techniques. The trainee first observes the behavior modeled in the video and then reproduces the behavior on the job.

The skills that are required to build up are defined

A brief overview of the theory is then provided to the trainers

Then, trainees are given instructions that what specific learning points or critical behavior they have to watch

Then the expert is used to model the suitable behaviors

Then, the trainees are encouraged to practice the suitable behavior in a role play or through any other method of simulation

Trainees are then provided with some opportunities to give reinforcement for appropriate imitation of the model’s behavior

In the end, trainer ensures that trainees appropriately reinforces the behavior on the work place

Role play is a simulation in which each participant is given a role to play. Trainees are given with some information related to description of the role, concerns, objectives, responsibilities, emotions, etc. Then, a general description of the situation, and the problem that each one of them faces, is given. For instance, situation could be strike in factory, managing conflict, two parties in conflict, scheduling vacation days, etc. Once the participants read their role descriptions, they act out their roles by interacting with one another. 

Role Plays helps in

Developing interpersonal skills and communication skills

Conflict resolution

Group decision making

Developing insight into one’s own behavior and its impact on others

There are various types of role plays, such as:

Multiple Role Play – In this type of role play, all trainees are in groups, with each group acting out the role play simultaneously. After the role play, each group analyzes the interactions and identifies the learning points.

Single Role Play – One group of participants plays the role for the rest, providing demonstrations of situation. Other participants observe the role play, analyze their interactions with one another and learn from the play.

Role Rotation – It starts as a single role play. After the interaction of participants, the trainer will stop the role play and discuss what happened so far. Then the participants are asked to exchange characters. This method allows a variety of ways to approach the roles.

Spontaneous Role Play – In this kind of role play, one of the trainees plays herself while the other trainees play people with whom the first participant interacted before.

Case Studies try to simulate decision making situation that trainees may find at their work place. It reflects the situations and complex problems faced by managers, staff, HR, CEO, etc. The objective of the case study method is to get trainees to apply known concepts and ideologies and ascertain new ones. The case study method emphasize on approach to see a particular problem rather than a solution. Their solutions are not as important as the understanding of advantages and disadvantages.

Procedure of the Case Study Method

The trainee is given with some written material, and the some complex situations of a real or imaginary organization. A case study may range from 50 to 200 pages depending upon the problem of the organization.

A series of questions usually appears at the end of the case study.

The longer case studies provide enough of the information to be examined while the shorter ones require the trainee to explore and conduct research to gather appropriate amount of information.

The trainee then makes certain judgment and opines about the case by identifying and giving possible solutions to the problem.

In between trainees are given time to digest the information. If there is enough time left, they are also allowed to collect relevant information that supports their solution.

Once the individuals reach the solution of a problem, they meet in small groups to discuss the options, solutions generated.

Then, the trainee meets with the trainer, who further discusses the case.

Case Study method focuses on 

Building decision making skills

Assessing and developing Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSAs)

Developing communication and interpersonal skills

Developing management skills

Developing procedural and strategic knowledge

TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR POLICIES

Policies and Procedures are the strategic link between the Company's Vision and its day-to-day operations. But why is that so important? It's because well written policies & procedures allow employees to understand their roles and responsibilities within predefined limits. Basically, policies & procedures allow management to guide operations without constant management intervention. Policies & procedures are required when there is a need for consistency in your day-to-day operational activities. Policies and procedures also provide clarity to the reader when dealing with accountability issues or activities that are of critical importance to the company, such as, health & safety, legal liabilities, regulatory requirements or issues that have serious consequences.

And if your organization already has established Policies & Procedures how can you determine if they are meeting your needs? A few "Critical" signs that your policies and procedures need to be reviewed and updated would include an increase in the number of accidents, higher failure rates or costly overruns. The workforce can also provide important clues that your company's policies and procedures need to be reviewed.These clues could include more staff questions on "normal operations" or a feeling of general confusion within a department or division. Employees may also be demonstrating inconsistency in their job performance and there may be an increase in the workforce's stress levels. Finally, your customers may provide additional clues in the form of increasing complaints.

Let's take a look at the major benefits they provide. First, employees are provided with information that allows them freedom to carry out their job and make decisions within defined boundaries. Second, employees understand the constraints of their job without using a "trail and error" approach.Third,policies & procedures enable the workforce to clearly understand individual & team responsibilities. Finally, clearly written policies & procedures allow managers to exercise control by exception rather than "micro-manage" their staff.

It's easy to see that well-written policies & procedures benefit the company as well as the employee. From an employee perspective the guidelines provided in policies and procedures allow workers to perform their jobs with respect and dignity. Polices provide guidance on how to handle issues properly as well as clearly identifying their job constrains. The organization benefits by allowing managers the freedom to concentrate on strategic issues because policies and procedures are in place to guide the normal-day-to-day operations.

POLICIES OFA COMPANY CAN BE OF VARIOUS TYPES

Employee Conduct: An employee conduct policy establishes the duties and responsibilities each employee must adhere to as a condition of employment. Conduct policies are in place as a guideline for appropriate employee behavior, and they outline things such as proper dress code, workplace safety procedures, harassment policies and policies regarding computer and Internet usage. Such policies also outline the procedures employers may utilize to discipline inappropriate behavior, including warnings or employee termination.

Equal Opportunity :Equal opportunity laws are rules that promote fair treatment in the workplace. Most organizations implement equal opportunity policies -- anti-discrimination and affirmative action policies, for example -- to encourage unprejudiced behavior within the workplace. These policies discourage inappropriate behavior from employees, supervisors and independent contractors in regard to the race, gender, sexual orientation or religious and cultural beliefs of another person within the organization.

Attendance and Time Off: Attendance policies set rules and guidelines surrounding employee adherence to work schedules. Attendance policies define how employees may schedule time off or notify superiors of an absence or late arrival. This policy also sets forth the consequences for failing to adhere to a schedule. For example, employers may allow only a certain number of absences within a specified time frame. The attendance policy discusses the disciplinary action employees face if they miss more days than the company allows.

Substance Abuse: Many companies have substance abuse policies that prohibit the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco products during work hours, on company property or during company functions. These policies often outline smoking procedures employees must follow if allowed to smoke on business premises. Substance abuse policies also discuss the testing procedures for suspected drug and alcohol abuse

TRAINING METHODS

Lecture: It is one of the oldest methods of training. This method is used to create understanding of a topic or to influence behavior, attitudes through lecture. A lecture can be in printed or oral form. Lecture is telling someone about something. Lecture is given to enhance the knowledge of listener or to give him the theoretical aspect of a topic. Training is basically incomplete without lecture. When the trainer begins the training session by telling the aim, goal, agenda, processes, or methods that will be used in training that means the trainer is using the lecture method. It is difficult to imagine training without lecture format. There are some variations in Lecture method. The variation here means that some forms of

lecturesareinteractivewhilesomearenot.

Straight lecture method consists of presenting information, which the trainee attempts to absorb. In this method, the trainer speaks to a group about a topic. However, it does not involve any kind of interaction between the trainer and the trainees. A lecture may also take the form of printed text, such as books, notes, etc. The difference between the straight lecture and the printed material is the trainer’s intonation, control of speed, body language, and visual image of the trainer. The trainer in case of straight lecture can decide to vary from the training script, based on the signals from the trainees, whereas same material in print is restrictedtowhatisprinted.

A good lecture consists of introduction of the topic, purpose of the lecture, and priorities and preferences of the order in which the topic will be covered.

Discussion method: This method uses a lecturer to provide the learners with context that is supported, elaborated, explains, or expanded on through interactions both among the trainees and between thetrainer and the trainees. The interaction and the communication between these two make it much more effective and powerful than the lecture method.If the Discussion method is used with proper sequence i.e. lectures, followed by discussion and questioning, can achieve higher level knowledge objectives, such as problem solving and principlelearning. 

The Discussion method consists a two-way flow of communication i.e. knowledge in the form of lecture is communicated to trainees, and then understanding is conveyed back by traineestotrainer. 

Understanding is conveyed in the form of verbal and non-verbal feedback that enables the trainer to determine whether the material is understood. If yes, then definitely it would help out the trainees to implement it at their workplaces and if not, the trainer may need to spend more time on that particular area by presenting the information again in a different manner. 

Questioning can be done by both ways i.e. the trainees and the trainer. When the trainees ask questions, they explain their thinking about the content of the lecture. A trainer who asks questions stimulates thinking about the content of the lecture. Asking and responding questions are beneficial to trainees because it enhance understanding and keep the trainees focused on the content. Besides that, discussions, and interactions allow the trainee to be actively engaged in the material of the trainer. This activity helps in improving recall.

In-Basket Technique – It provides trainees with a log of written text or information and requests, such as memos, messages, and reports, which would be handled by manger, engineer, reporting officer, or administrator. 

Procedure of the In-basket Technique

In this technique, trainee is given some information about the role to be played such as, description, responsibilities, general context about the role.

The trainee is then given the log of materials that make up the in-basket and asked to respond to materials within a particular time period.

After all the trainees complete in-basket, a discussion with the trainer takes place.

In this discussion the trainee describes the justification for the decisions.

The trainer then provides feedback, reinforcing decisions made suitably or encouraging the trainee to increase alternatives for those made unsuitably.

A variation on the technique is to run multiple, simultaneous in baskets in which each trainee receives a different but organized set of information. It is important that trainees must communicate with each other to accumulate the entire information required to make a suitable decision.

This technique focuses on:

Building decision making skills

Assess and develops Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSAs)

Develops of communication and interpersonal skills

Develops procedural knowledge

Develops strategic knowledge

TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR MOTIVATING SALES PEOPLE

Selling is a tough job—tough on the ego, tough on the energy level—which explains why sales reps are often some of a company’s highest-paid employees. But even a fat salary is usually not enough to combat steep competition, finicky customers and grumpy prospects.

"If compensation were a sufficient motivator, your people would already be performing," says sales consultant and executive coach Mark Palmer. Instead, it is critical to identify what excites your people—maybe it’s cash, certain gifts, prestige, peer recognition or job satisfaction. But there is one unifying quality of all leading sales reps: "They want to be on top, and they want to be unique," Palmer says. "They want to win."

However, it’s critical to find ways to ignite an entire department, not just identify your leading sellers, says management consultant Doug Johnson. "Otherwise, the top three or four people work like crazy to win, and the rest of the people who are just regular good salespeople—not superstars—figure they can’t compete so they just give up," Johnson says. "You have to create a program that allows everyone to win at some level."

Consider these strategies in training programmee to motivate your sales force:

Make commission a driving force. To get the results you want, shake up your commission structure. If you want to push a new product, offer a higher cut for that model. Make sure staff members are encouraged to land the big fish with proportionally big payoffs. Johnson once worked for an insurance company where the receding commission structure

discouraged sales reps from going after the big, tougher-to-sell policies. The midsized policies were the reps’ sweet spot, and cost the company lots of lost, big, profitable policies.

Build winning teams. Creating sales teams—in which there is an incentive for each member to support, mentor and encourage the other members—has proven valuable in many ways.

Build in peer pressure. Publicly posting sales, margins and conversion rates lights a flame under everyone.

Get the whole company behind the sale. After all, the whole organization’s survival depends on the sales department’s success. Announce contests and campaigns to the whole firm. Encourage supporting departments—such as customer service, engineering and marketing—to be supportive of the sales staff’s efforts.

Find out what motivates. Ask your sales team what they want. Experiment with different bonuses and prizes. Often, cash is king. Sometimes highly luxurious items that are reluctant self-purchases might be big winners. Other times, less tangible prizes—such as the ability to telecommute once a week—can resonate with staff.

Keep it frequent. The key to successfully motivating sales staff is to build a strategy into the daily work. Small but frequent tokens of accomplishment might include a can of soda for making a daily quota, or an early out on a Friday for a week well-done.

TRAINING METHODS

A motivated sales force can exceed your expectations for revenue and for profit. How do you motivate them to go above and beyond? Here are some techniques.

Foster a team environment: Many companies find that a team mindset can provide great results.Do your sales people feel like a team or is everyone out there as a lone ranger? Even if the nature of your business requires people to work individually there is value in having a shared sales goal and business identity.When people communicate, they can also begin to collaborate better. Senior salespeople can help junior salespeople. Sales conferences, group training, team meetings, team building events, and social gatherings can all help you foster a better team environment.

Coach and Mentor Them: Sales is an evolving role. Today it’s not about just selling but about fostering relationships with customers. Foster relationships with your sales people and you’ll get better results from them just like you will with your clients.Coaching and training sales staff can result in significant improvement in results. People respond to individual feedback on performance. You may consider implementing one-on-one meetings on a monthly basis with all of your salespeople, for example. This is where you can give praise when it’s due and help struggling salespeople overcome challenges as well.

Creating some friendly competition: Salespeople tend to be competitive by nature and motivated by money. Internal contests can inspire great results and can also be a great way to foster team collaboration, too. Regular contests can make a big difference in the mindset and the morale of your sales team.

Listen to their pain points: Regular sales staff meetings and individual one-on-one meetings can help address issues and problems that your salespeople are experiencing. Listen to your salespeople and act on their concerns. A happy and steam lined sales team leads to motivated and long lasting employees.

Give them the tools they need to succeed: Do you have outdated sales tools? Do your sales tracking, CRM, and order fulfillment tools help salespeople do their jobs or do they make life difficult or just add another step in their day? Upgrading to the sales right tools can help your staff become better at what they do. Your efforts of continuously improving processes in the company can translate to a salesperson being able to continuously improve his or her results.

Show them the money and appreciation: Recognize excellence with compensation. You can do this with cash, gifts, plaques of appreciation, and so on. This probably seems pretty obvious but how long has it been since you reviewed your company’s compensation plan? Is it considered competitive for your industry? Are you rewarding the performers and inspiring those who are struggling to try a little harder? Regularly review compensation and incentives to make sure you continue to inspire people through rewarding excellence.

Games and Simulations are structured and sometimes unstructured, that are usually played for enjoyment sometimes are used for training purposes as an educational tool. Training games and simulations are different from work as they are designed to reproduce or simulate events, circumstances, processes that take place in trainees’ job. 

A Training Game is defined as spirited activity or exercise in which trainees compete with each other according to the defined set of rules.

Simulation is creating computer versions of real-life games. Simulation is about imitating or making judgment or opining how events might occur in a real situation.

It can entail intricate numerical modeling, role playing without the support of technology, or combinations.

Training games and simulations are now seen as an effective tool for training because its key components are: 

Challenge

Rules

Interactivity

These three components are quite essential when it comes to learning. 

Job Rotation is a management approach where employees are shifted between two or more assignments or jobs at regular intervals of time in order to expose them to all verticals of an organization. It is a pre-planned approach with an objective to test the employee skills and competencies in order to place him or her at the right place. In addition to it, it reduces the monotony of the job and gives them a wider experience and helps them gain more insights.

Job rotation is a well-planned practice to reduce the boredom of doing same type of job everyday and explore the hidden potential of an employee. The process serves the purpose of both the management and the employees. It helps management in discovering the talent of employees and determining what he or she is best at. On the other hand, it gives an individual a chance to explore his or her own interests and gain experience in different fields or operations.

Job Rotation Objectives

Reducing Monotony of the Job: The first and foremost objective of job rotation is to reduce the monotony and repetitiveness involved in a job. It allows employees to experience different type of jobs and motivates them to perform well at each stage of job replacement.

Succession Planning: The concept of succession planning is ‘Who will replace whom’. Its main function of job rotation is to develop a pool of employees who can be placed at a senior level when someone gets retired or leaves the organization. The idea is to create an immediate replacement of a high-worth employee from within the organization.

Creating Right-Employee Job Fit: The success of an organization depends on the on-job productivity of its employees. If they’re rightly placed, they will be able to give the maximum output. In case, they are not assigned the job that they are good at, it creates a real big problem for both employee as well as organization. Therefore, fitting a right person in right vacancy is one of the main objectives of job rotation.

Exposing Workers to All Verticals of the Company: Another main function of job rotation process is to exposing workers to all verticals or operations of the organization in order to make them aware how company operates and how tasks are performed. It gives them a chance to understand the working of the organization and different issues that crop up while working.

Testing Employee Skills and Competencies: Testing and analyzing employee skills and competencies and then assigning them the work that they excel at is one of the major functions of job rotation process. It is done by moving them to different jobs and assignments and determining their proficiency and aptitude. Placing them what they are best at increases their on-job productivity.

Developing a Wider Range of Work Experience: Employees, usually don’t want to change their area of operations. Once they start performing a specific task, they don’t want to shift from their comfort zone. Through job rotation, managers prepare them in advance to have a wider range of work experience and develop different skills and competencies. It is necessary for an overall development of an individual. Along with this, they understand the problems of various departments and try to adjust or adapt accordingly.

Job rotation is a well planned management approach that is beneficial both for employees and management.