Introduction
A complaint is either an informal or a formal concern expressed by an individual or an institution against the services, quality of operations, reaction, or response of the other party. For a complaint to remain valid and reasonable it must appear that another party’s actions or response have indeed negatively or unjustifiably affected the complainant’s rights. The complainant must have suffered directly because of the other party’s action. Customer Complaints in an institution often arise due to misconduct, disputes, or mismanagement.
Causes Of complaints
Disputes are disagreements that may arise due to differences in opinion between customers and the staff regarding the quality of service, treatment of customers or any other action in the day-to-day running of the business. Employees should be aware that disputes are likely to occur in the cause of business and therefore it is important to handle them with care in Oder to avoid losing the customers.
Misconduct on the other hand may arise due to the employee or customer engagement in unethical behaviour such as favourism, stealing, hoarding on the staff’s side and failure to queue unnecessary complaints, noise on the customers’ part. Misconduct may lead to complaints from both sides of the parties. The other cause of complaint is mismanagement. Failure to practice correct management practices and professionalism may be a source of constant disagreements with customers and staff in a business entity.
Mismanagement practices that may lead to customer complaints include unreasonable decisions, negligence, ignoring of important matters, unfair procedural practices, poor leadership advice, rights infringement, and wrong application of business policy. Management forms the central nerve of the business, which guarantees smooth and harmonious running of the business if properly handled, or failure and constant dispute if not properly handled.
Procedural Importance
In dealing with complaints, it is prudent to lay down clear procedures for resolving customer complaints and disputes. Management must lay down a procedural policy that sets the criteria of identifying a complaint, investigation, dealing with the complaint, resolution, and feedback analysis from the consumers. Customers must be able to file a complaint, receive an acknowledgment of the complaint, and get an assurance of the screening of his problem, mediation, resolution, and communication on the course of action taken by the firm. A clear path of resolving a complaint is contributing to a positive outcome in complaint resolution.
Methods and options
In dealing with the complaints, one may choose various options depending on what one perceives to be the most workable option and the appropriate method. The different options drive their messages home in a non-similar way. The various methods of dispute resolution may include collaboration, competition and mixed motive method. If one chooses to be collaborative, he/she has to choose collaborative means of dispute resolution, which enhance empathy, agreement, and consensus. On the other hand, competitive options are most suitable when dealing with a complaint that is competitive in nature. The mixed native method may come in handy when one needs to drive home decision-making points without appearing to have an upper hand of the decision-making. The following are some of the options that one may use under the three methods.
Collaborative means
A collaborative method requires one to agree or reach a consensus with the customer. The manager handling the complaint should therefore own the problem, discuss amicably on the way forward, and identify the main areas of agreement through emphasis on making peace. One achieves this through various options such as listening, fact-finding, and formal mediation. Listening enables management to be understanding and empathetic therefore a quicker means to gaining customer collaboration. Fact-finding and formal mediation identify where the problem lies, communicates it and therefore a proper understanding between the two parties is established.
Competitive Means
Competitive means come in handy in situations where the management and the customer have to prove that they are right in trying to resolve a pending issue. The main important point when using this method is trying to find out who is on the right or wrong and obtaining a compensatory solution competitively. The various options that one may use in such a case include lawsuits, shuttle diplomacy, systems change, and generic approach to solving disputes.
Mixed Motive Means
This method does not directly engage the other party on the way forward in dispute resolution due to the risk of appearing to have a direct influence on the other party. It involves resolving a dispute by appealing to the other party in the dispute through a third party or providing an array of options. The dispute resolution options that one can use in this case include referrals, reporting in the media, pointing out a list of solutions from which one can choose, and finally providing mentorship. All these options do not directly influence the party’s decision-making but offers appeal so that the party can act on it and resolve the dispute.
As can be seen, the various options in use for resolving disputes arise from the way or means in which one needs to resolve the dispute. For a good outcome, one has to choose the appropriate means, and options for the appropriate complaint.
References
Cook, S. (2012). Complaint management excellence : creating customer loyalty through service recovery. London: Philadelphia : Kogan Page.
McDermott, R. (2009). Prospect Theory and Negotiation. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Spencer, D. (2002). Essential Dispute Resolution. London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd Routledge.
Woods, J. A., & Zemke, R. (1998). Best practices in customer service. New York: Amherst, Mass. : HRD Press.
