Process
- The path from intake to closure, with an owner for every step
- Criteria for classifying and prioritising cases
- Response deadlines and an escalation mechanism that triggers itself
- Linking complaints to root cause analysis and corrective action
Customer Quality
Complaint handling and Customer Quality
I put the complaint process in order so that every case has an owner, a deadline and a visible status. For five years I led a team handling more than two thousand complaints a year from customers in a dozen-odd countries — I know where this process jams.
When it makes sense to get in touch
Complaints live in inboxes and spreadsheets, and only the person handling a case knows its status.
Response deadlines slip and you hear about it from the customer.
The same defect returns every few months and is handled from scratch each time.
The board asks for complaint metrics and preparing the answer takes two days.
Production, logistics and sales each have a different version of what happened.
Scope of work
Customer and organisation
- Communication standards: what we send, when, and in what form
- Handling difficult cases, escalations and claim negotiations
- Coordinating production, logistics, sales and quality control around a single case
- Preparing the team for customer audits and visits covering complaints
Measurement
- Complaint metrics that can be collected without manual re-typing
- Reporting to the board and to customers in a repeatable format
- Periodic reviews: what recurs, what is growing, what was only closed on paper
What you are left with
A documented and implemented complaint process with clear ownership
Customer communication templates and an escalation path
A set of metrics with a defined data source and cadence
A team that knows who does what the moment a case comes in
How we work together
Understanding the problem and its context
Talking to the team and management, mapping the constraints: people, systems, deadlines and budget.
Analysing the data and the current process
Mapping how the process actually runs, not how the procedure describes it.
Setting priorities and a plan
What gives the largest effect for the smallest cost, in what order, and who owns what.
Delivering the solution
Working with users, piloting, training, correcting based on what practice shows.
Measuring effectiveness and stabilising
Checking whether the change actually worked, then locking it into the standard.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need software for this?
Not at the start. The process has to hold together first: who takes the case, who decides, within what deadline, and what happens when a deadline is at risk. A tool cements a process but will not create one — putting chaos into software gives you chaos with a nicer interface. If a tool makes sense afterwards, Solvio is the one I built for this.
How is this different from a complaint register?
A register answers how many cases there were. A process answers why they came back. The difference is the link between handling and root cause analysis: a case closes only once you know what caused it and whether the action worked.
How long does it take to put such a process in order?
The first visible effects — a clear path, owners, deadlines — show up within a few weeks. Lasting change needs a full cycle: several real cases handled the new way, a review of what did not work, and a correction. Without that cycle the old habits return, because under pressure people do what they know.
Do you also work in English, with international customers?
Yes. The team I led handled customers across a dozen-odd countries, and I run the ERP rollout in an international environment. Customer communication, escalations and documentation can be handled in Polish or English.
Tell me what you are working on
Describe what is happening in the process and what you have already tried. I reply within one business day.