As a veterinarian, you often have face to face contact with the buyer of your service; the farmer. So you probably hear complaints directly from the source, but also from colleague veterinarians/employees.
Appropriatly managing complaints will help you to keep your customers satisfied and to prevent yourself from a lot of negative energy. Usually, the issue is not the problem itself, but the way organisation deal with the complaint. They often fail to help the customer.
Importance of solving complaints
Complaint management helps you to:
- Increase customer satisfaction (goodwill)
- Reduce structural causes that lead to the same problems (efficiency)
- Reduce customers that say goodbye to your veterinary practice (retention)
- Enhance business information about your customers
- Position your veterinary practice as customer friendly (image)
Service paradox
A farmer that is not happy with the results of your programme which should reduce Mastitis in his herd – if he complains about it. Help, a complaining customer. Is that a problem? In fact, it’s an opportunity. Research has shown that solving complaints of customers increases customer satisfaction, at least when you do it right. This is called the service paradox; a complaining customer gives you the opportunity to enhance the relationship with this person/organisation.
Taking the basic steps of Effective Complaint Management into consideration will help you become the most customer focused veterinary practice.
Basic Steps for Effective Complaint Management
1. Location to receive complaints
- Customers should know where and how to file complaints or make inquiries.
- Create a place to receive complaints that is visible and accessible to customers.
- Publicise the complaint system to encourage customers to voice their dissatisfaction and to make the good intentions of the company apparent.
2. Process and record complaints
- Log in the complaint and any relevant data.
- Categorise it for resolution and record-keeping. Categories must be clearly defined and exclusive of one another.
- Assign the complaint to one person for handling.
- Forward the complaint to another level of authority, if appropriate.
3. Acknowledge complaint
Customers do not register complaints with only a casual interest in their disposition. Complaining involves some inconvenience and, possibly, expense. Loyal customers with strong feelings are often involved.
- Personalise the response.
- Talk to the customer, if possible, by phone or in person.
- Use letters when necessary, but avoid impersonal form of letters.
- Take extra time, if needed, to help customers with special needs, such as language barriers.
4. Investigate and Analyse the Complaint
- Be fair.
- Get both sides of the story.
- Keep records in the complaint file of all meetings, conversations or findings.
5. Resolve the problem in a manner consistent with company policy
- Forward the complaint to the appropriate level of authority for resolution.
- Keep the customers informed through progress reports.
- Notify the customers promptly of a proposed settlement.
6. Follow-up
- Find out if the customers is satisfied with the resolution. Was it carried out?
- Refer the complaint to a third-party dispute-resolution mechanism, if necessary.
- Co-operate with the third-party.
7. Prepare and file a report on the disposition of the complaint, and periodically analyse and summarise complaints
- Circulate complaint statistics and action proposals in the practice.
- Develop an action plan for complaint prevention.
- Make sure the customer’s viewpoint is given appropriate consideration in company decision making.
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