"Six Steps to Integrating Complaint Data into QA Decisions"
Quality Progress
February 2003, pp. 42-47
This article describes an effective process used to integrate complaint data into the Quality Assurance decision making process:
- Evaluate Problem Severity—Three common ways to do this using customer complaint data are (a) looking for direct or veiled threats the customer will switch brands or service suppliers; (b) looking at problem classification data from comment cards, correspondence, or toll-free-number based complaint handling systems; and (c) looking at feedback cards and surveys, which are made universally available to customers and ask whether the customer would recommend the product or service to associates;
- Extrapolate to Marketplace—This can be done by (a) direct estimation of the number of consumers encountering the problem through direct survey of customers or inspection of a sample of products from the field; (b) indirect measurement by gathering data from the field organizations that have received complaints but may not have passed them on to headquarters; and (c) estimation from previous complaint rates for known similar problems;
- Estimate Revenue Impact—This is calculated by estimating the number of customers lost because of direct problem experience, as well as those lost because of negative word of mouth. (note: The specifics of this calculation is provided in the article);
- Compare to Internal Measures—Some internal sources are QA standards, repair (and re-repair) rates, service call schedules, system downtime, and returns or warranty costs. The article explains how to reconcile discrepant pictures from complaints and internal measures;
- Determine the Cause—The success of this step is dependent on the quality of the information available; and
- Determine the Solution—The authors says that "...judgment based on the cost of actions vs. the benefit of reduction or mitigation of the problem must be used to determine the best approach."
Back to top of page
