5 Must-Have Features of an Effective Complaints Management Solution

Nobody likes to hear bad feedback. But, unfortunately, businesses especially have to be prepared to receive more brickbats than bouquets because dissatisfied customers are louder than the happy ones. However bitter the experience of receiving complaints may be, they also unlock the potential to improve product and service performance for businesses. While losing customers due to dissatisfaction is an ever-present risk, a well-handled complaint can also be an opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with the same customer.

A McKinsey 2022 State of Customer Care Survey reveals that customer care is an area of strategic focus for businesses and one of their top three priorities in the next couple of years. The focus is to drive a simplified customer experience (CX) to reduce call volumes and costs. The expectation is that digital tools and advanced analytics capabilities will be strengthened to enable this.

4 Benefits of a Next-Generation Complaints Management

Some of the benefits of a best complaint management software system include,

Improved Customer Satisfaction: Having a good complaints management system encourages customers to share feedback, good and bad. This provides businesses with inputs on what works and what are the areas that need improvement. Using the feedback and looping it into the business processes will enhance the product and service quality, thereby improving customer satisfaction.

Data-Driven Approach to Customer Handling: Sometimes, just the fact that they were heard will be enough for the customer to feel delighted with customer service. In situations where the customer complaint is due to a lack of understanding of the product or service, being able to respond to queries in a timely manner with adequate and relevant information can help with improving customer satisfaction. The customer service team must have easy access to the relevant information to be able to handle such calls at their end and mitigate the issue without the need for escalation.

Trained Customer Service Manpower: Data on the nature of complaints being received can be used to improve product performance. It can also help identify gaps in customer handling skills and deliver training to improve customer service. Therefore, the top management must analyze data and empower the team with sufficient skills and resources to enable this.

Simplified Complaint Registration Process: Often, call waiting and untrained staff exasperate customers and worsen the complaint registration process. This aggravates the customer and causes them to lose faith in the company. Simplifying the process and responding quickly and efficiently, are critical to retain the customer.

To ensure effective complaint management, investing in a cloud-based, AI-powered solution such as ComplianceQuest can help businesses turn risks into opportunities for continuous improvement of processes, products, and services.

5 Must-Have Features of a Modern Complaints Management Solution

The following are must-haves for making the customer management process efficient and effective.

#1 – Automated Complaint Handling Process: A well-defined customer complaint policy is a must for ensuring the proper identification of and responding to complaints and feedback. Creating omni-channels for receiving feedback, clearly defining roles and responsibilities for handling complaints, and escalating at the appropriate time are critical to ensuring the effectiveness of complaints management. This will also help with standardizing complaints management.

#2 - AI-Powered Triaging and Predictive Analytics: Using an AI-powered complaints management solution helps with queuing the complaints that require further triaging and review by the relevant complaint coordinator. CQ Complaints Management Solution takes advantage of the data and artificial intelligence framework of Einstein Predictive Analytics to automatically triage complaints based on risk level and urgency. Then it is routed for further investigation and relevant departments are automatically notified to take action. Escalation mechanisms are triggered based on the complaint’s severity and priority. If needed, reporting to a regulatory authority is also automated.

#3 - MDR eGateway to Process High Volume Complaints to the FDA: CQ’s Complaints Management Solution offers a fully integrated regulatory reporting, MDR eGateway, that enables submitting eMDRs to the FDA with just one click. It eliminates the complexity of managing multiple servers and IT infrastructure in transmitting reports and attachments and receiving acknowledgments through the FDA Electronic Submission Gateway (ESG). For high-volume complaints, it helps increase the speed of reporting by automatically generating the appropriate XML file(s), and then transmitting it to the FDA ESG FAER database including attachments and any follow-up reports. All acknowledgments and errors are captured in the complaints record and automatic alerts are sent to appropriate personnel about any failures or messaging errors. This reduces manual effort and improves efficiency and productivity. ComplianceQuest is a registered FDA Transaction Partner for eMDRs and supports the latest XML, HL7 R3, ICSR R2, and AS2 protocols with client digital certificates.

#4 - Automated Investigation and Root Cause Analysis: The ComplianceQuest solution facilitates collaboration between complaint handlers and subject matter experts to perform root cause analysis together. The solution is integrated with a 5 Why root cause analysis functionality that enables documenting several root causes, attaching evidence, and capturing the decisions needed as part of the investigation. The system also links to the CQ Supplier Management Solution to initiate and manage the SCAR process for any issues caused due to a failed supplier-provided component.

#5 - Seamless Integration with CRM: The Complaints Management Solution from CQ is built on the cloud-based Salesforce platform with REST API based integration at its core. To avoid disconnected systems that drive inefficiencies, the CQ integration framework enables connecting to the CQ Complaint Management system with your on-premise or cloud-based CRM. With integration to your CRM, your sales, field services, and customer service personnel have complete visibility into the status of each complaint.

In addition to the above capabilities/features, it is critical to have a complaints management solution with integrated CAPA management, and RCA whiteboard to enable collaborative problem solving, risk management, change management, and document handling as well. The need of the hour is to make complaints management a core part of the QMS process.

Check out CQ’s Applied AI Series: Using ‘Real’ AI in the Complaints Management Process to find out how AI facilitates complaint management: https://www.compliancequest.com/blog/applied-artificial-intelligence/

Download the whitepaper Applied AI: Going Beyond the Buzz and Delivering Real Value to Quality Leaders here: https://www.compliancequest.com/whitepaper/ai-revalution-delivering-real-value-to-quality-leaders/

To find out more about the CQ Complaints Management Solution, visit: https://www.compliancequest.com/complaint-management-system/