Consumer finds needles and disappears into thin air
What if data protection gets in the way of your research?
A retailer contacts
your company: a consumer claims to have found multiple needles in your product.
Due to privacy reasons, you are not allowed to contact the consumer to obtain
additional information. What now? It happened to one of our members.
As a company, you want to keep your customers happy. Complaints are the perfect opportunity to identify areas for improvement within your company. Therefore, it is important to be able to communicate with the consumer who expresses the complaint.
In this case, a consumer claims to have found several needles in a can. Given the exceptional nature of the complaint and given the potentially dangerous nature of the foreign object, further investigation is an absolute must. Because the complaint reaches the company through a retailer, it makes direct contact with the consumer more complicated. When the retailer inquires whether direct contact could be made, there is a deafening silence. The truth never came to light.
Of course, internal investigation is still necessary. Go to the factory, check internal complaints and conduct a test to verify the truthfulness of the claim. Next, evaluate the consistency of the story. Finally, you can contact us to verify how realistic the claims are.
What can we learn from this incident?
Invest in a professional first line
Your first line plays an important role in handling complaints. Therefore, it is wise to invest in their training: your first-line staff must know how to respond to sensitive complaints and what information to gather. If this step goes as planned, you will be able to focus on the heart of the matter: complaint investigation.
Thoroughly investigate every sensitive complaint
As a business, you'd rather not receive sensitive complaints, but they can be a growth opportunity. Do not just trust the consumer's word, but thoroughly investigate every complaint. Listen carefully, gather evidence and try to discover where things could have gone wrong. Once you have all the facts, you can address the complaint appropriately.
Always double-check your approach
Some complaints are so uncommon that you might consider malicious intent. Therefore, always double-check your approach as a QA manager with a board member and/or external specialist. Also, do not forget to inform the involved stakeholders.
How can we help you?
Your first line, crisis ready in only 60'
During our ‘first line’ training, your employees are being trained on how to respond to sensitive situations and contact with the outside world. The training consists of three parts:
- participants have a week to follow the e-learning (20')
- followed by a telephone call with a number of role plays (30')
- finally the participants receive one week to complete the test (10')
The company receives a report with their results. In a next phase, we can also test the trained first lines during a spot check. Each employee receives individual feedback.
Your complaint, our advice
While your company prefers to receive as few complaints as possible, we at Food Security are confronted with complaints from various food companies on a weekly basis. Last year, we gave advice on complaints and/or crisis situations in at least 58 cases. Thanks to our expertise, we thoroughly assess your sensitive complaint. Do not hesitate to double-check your specific approach with us.
Learning points
First aid for consumer complaints
When receiving a sensitive consumer complaint, a swift response is key. Proper complaint management directly affects consumer confidence in your brand and products.
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