Check 3: Turning complaints into business

Scenario
As part of their customer service policy, most organisations have a specific policy stating how complaints will be handled.
Read the transcript of a telephone interaction between Alex, the personal assistant at CommInc, and James, a client.
Alex: Hello
James: Hello. It’s James from Boomfin Finance here. I’m ringing again about that brochure you did for our annual conference. I told you before we weren’t happy with all the mistakes. The new brochures that just arrived have still got all the same mistakes. I need them fixed today. I told you people we aren’t going to pay for brochures full of mistakes. This is very unprofessional.
Alex: Oh. I don’t know anything about this. I’ll have to talk to Salwa when she gets in and ring you back.
James: That’s not good enough. I need to have this problem resolved now. (angry)
Alex: Well. I’ll look into it and ring you back.
Now read CommInc’s Complaints Policy.

Alex investigates James’s complaint about mistakes in the brochures.
It turns out the printing company has made a mistake. It has printed an old version of the brochure.
Task
Keeping in mind CommInc’s Complaints Policy, think about what action Alex can take. Complete the following activity.
You can print this document and write your answers, or you can type your answers in the spaces provided. Remember to save your work to a folder or to your computer or storage device.

Activities

  1. What do you think Alex could say to James when he calls him back? Write out a short transcript of what he could say.

Click here and type in James' transcript.

2.Using the following key words from CommInc’s Complaints Policy, suggest some actions James could take to deal with this complaint. The first one has been done to get you started.

Key words from CommInc’s Complaints Policy / To deal with this complaint, James could…
Confirm / Confirm the nature of the complaint with the client, contact the appropriate personnel, in this case the suppliers, CommInc’s regular printers.
Act promptly / Click here and type in your answer.
Resolve / Click here and type in your answer.
Follow up / Click here and type in your answer.
Improve the system / Click here and type in your answer.

Feedback

How did you go?

To check your answers, go back and click ‘Feedback to Check 3’.

/ Have you saved your work to a folder or to your computer or storage device?

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