ISO 10002 Customer Satisfaction, Complaints Management

“A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organization, related to its products, or the complaints handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected."  Definition from ISO 10002:2004

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It costs an organization at least four times as much to recruit a new customer as to maintain an existing one. Organizations that regularly lose customers, struggle to repair their damaged reputations.

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In today’s competitive environment, product and service innovations are re-defining accepted levels of performance. A good Complaints Management System is one of the crucial requirements for successful businesses when managing customers’ needs and protecting their brand.

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The Customer Satisfaction standard, ISO 10002:2004 – the guideline standard for implementing a complaints management system – helps organizations to identify, manage and understand how successfully they deal with their customers' complaints.

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The standard specifies the key requirements for handling customer complaints successfully and includes complaints management controls to help you address customer dissatisfaction within your business.

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Who is it relevant for?

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ISO 10002 is relevant to any organization that wishes to exceed customer expectations, a basic requirement for businesses of all types and sizes, whether they’re in the private, public or voluntary sectors.

1. Gap Analysis & Planning:

 

• Ensure you have the commitment of top management.
• Define, with the authorization of top management, your company's customer satisfaction, complaint management.
• Planning must be completed to establish a framework for identifying area for the implementation of necessary control measures.
• Legal obligations must be identified and understood, objectives set and a management programme for achieving them implemented; this entire process should be documented.

2. Implementation of ISO 10002:

• Introducing performance, measuring and monitoring practices.
• Establishing and documenting responsibility and authority for accidents, incidents, non-conformities, and corrective and preventative action.
• Establishing a procedure for records and records management.
• Auditing and assessing the performance of the management system.
• Performing management reviews of the system at identified and defined intervals.

3. Internal Audit Process

4. Certification Audit Process

There are a number of benefits to implementing and certifying your customer complaints management system:

   

• Customer retention

By adopting the management system, your ability to retain the loyalty of your customers will be enhanced.

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• Brand reputation

Implementing and certifying your complaints management system demonstrates to stakeholders that you have a real commitment to managing customer care issues and you have processes in place to handle, analyses and review complaints.

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• Operational efficiency

Implementation and certification ensures a consistent approach to handling customer queries, enabling you to identify trends and eliminate the causes of complaints, as well as improve your organization’s operations.

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• Improved internal communications and relations

It helps you to adopt a customer-focused approach to resolving complaints and encourage personnel to improve their skills in working with customers.

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• Flexibility

The standard is compatible with ISO 9001 Quality allowing you to add value and efficiency to your organization. ISO 10002 - annex A also provides guidance specifically for small businesses.

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• Continual improvement

It provides a basis for continual review and analysis of your complaints-handling process, the resolution of complaints and where improvements can be made.