Appendix I: Reinventing Complaint Resolution

• Service & Complaints Guides
• A Practical Guide to Handling Consumer Complaints
• Best Practices in Handling Customer Complaints
• A Guide for Consumer Complaints Management
• 6 Steps to Achieve Customer Service Excellence

A Check List for Implementing Best Practices in Complaint Resolution

Serving the American Public: Best Practices in Resolving Customer Complaints documents some of the best practices in handling complaints. This check list is a guide to implementing the best practices documented in the study to achieve quantum performance leaps in resolving complaints at other federal agencies. Actions for:

• Get executive buy-in. In order to achieve any real success, senior management must support the team. This should be done early. Include visual material when appropriate.
  
  
• Put together an implementation team. This team should include a representative from each step in the complaint handling process: front-line workers, information systems support, union representatives, management, quality improvement, etc.
  
  
• Map your current processes--both for complaints and the core processes they relate to. If you're not sure what your complaint system looks like, the team's first activity should be to identify each step in the process of complaint handling, from initial contact to final resolution.
  
  
• Conduct a gap analysis. The team should compare its own operations to the best practices listed in the report to understand where there are key differences between the team's organization and world-class performance. The difference between the team's services and the best-in-class processes is known as the gap. A starting point for a gap analysis is the list of questions about your organization.
  
  
• Develop recommendations. Based on the gap analysis, the team should develop a list of recommended changes in the organization's processes designed to close the gap. Some teams will tackle a large number of recommendations in the complaint handling report. Others may get better results by focusing on those recommendations that are linked to their core business practices or can provide the largest improvements. [???The team may ask for input from major organizational components (i.e. budget, systems, training, human resources) to identify issues that could affect the implementation of certain recommendations.]
  
  
• Brief the stakeholders. Senior executives and, where relevant, upper-level union management, should be briefed on the proposed recommendations. Feedback from these sessions should be used to develop final recommendations.
  
  
• Implementation. The team should then put together an action plan for implementing the approved recommendations.
  
  
• Achieve measurable results!! Done right, your customers should notice changes within six months.

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary
2. Overview
3. Leadership Strategies for Satisfying Customers
4. Information and Analysis
5. Planning
6. Human Resource Development and Management
7. Managing Customer Expectations and Satisfaction
8. Complaint Process Management
9. Business Results
10. Appendix I: Reinventing Complaint Resolution
11. Footnotes
12. Entire Guide

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