Note: The complaints management module presented in this article has been created based on the default module template of the module generator. The modules created with the module generator can be customized to meet individual requirements. This guide describes the basic functions of the standard module template. 

Aim of the module

The module is used to manage complaints professionally. Complaints are recorded, evaluated and controlled decentrally. In the module, it is also possible to define immediate measures for each complaint, to track these measures, and to organize additional error correction projects. 

Procedure 

Complaints are important interfaces to the customer in order to continuously improve the company's own processes and products. It is therefore important to introduce a systematic complaints management system in the company.

Complaints or customer complaints that become complaints can be submitted throughout the company - to sales, product management, team assistance, etc. - can be submitted. To ensure that no information is lost and that a concern can be recorded immediately, every employee is able to create a new complaint in the module and store the framework data that is important for recording.

Once the concern has been recorded, the complaint is reported to quality management or the defined complaint managers. These managers have the opportunity to evaluate in advance whether a complaint is to be controlled or justifiably rejected. Controlled complaints are processed by a defined team. Immediate measures are initiated to satisfy the customer and, if necessary, error correction projects are organized to reduce the probability of similar complaints occurring in the future. After these internal projects have been completed, it must be ensured that the knowledge gained and possible process changes are fed back into the organization. Finally, reclamation costs are still estimated and documented.

Module element

A single complaint is divided into four blocks in the Complaints module:

• Record complaint
• Evaluate complaint
• Implement immediate and corrective measures
• Reporting and complaint follow-up

When entering the complaint, data such as customer name, customer number, article number, batch of manufacture and the number of parts complained about are requested. In addition, you are asked to write a short description of the complaint and to define the contact person for the customer. The general data of a complaint are always visible.

As soon as a complaint is submitted, the content block for evaluating the complaint becomes visible. Here, a decision is made whether the complaint is justified, so that it can be included in the subsequent complaint process. In addition, the responsibilities for the complaint, the immediate and corrective actions are defined here. In the site header of each complaint, there is an option to protect the element. If this function is activated, only the complaint manager, the internally responsible person and the team for immediate and corrective actions can access the complaint. The complaint manager can also define in this block whether the error is already known and classify the risk of possibly losing the customer due to the complaint.

If the complaint is initiated, the last two blocks become visible. Under Implement immediate and corrective actions, a task management is implemented that allows defining immediate actions to satisfy the customer concern and, if necessary, coordinating an error correction project. Measures can be assigned to persons and deadlines can be defined by when the measures must be implemented. This area is used to follow up at regular intervals on what has happened since the last agreement and to define new measures if necessary. 

Under Reporting and Follow-up Complaints, knowledge transfer to existing processes is ensured, and complaint costs are determined via internal processing time, imputed hourly rates and material costs.

Rights management 

The Roles tab defines which users or groups are assigned to the Complaints Manager role. These role owners, in addition to the team for immediate and corrective actions and the internally responsible person, are authorized to view protected complaints. In addition, Complaint Managers can also view and edit all protected risks where they are not part of the team. Furthermore, complaint managers control submitted complaints so that the complaint process can start.

Possible customizations

No customizations are required to the complaint management module, and it is ready to use out of the box.

Before the module is used, it should be carefully checked for your own company which data is required to completely record a complaint and according to which criteria a complaint should be evaluated. In the same way, it is possible to individualize the composition of the resulting complaint costs.