SYMPOSIUM ON COMPLAINTS The customer m a y not a l w a y s be right but he m a y h a v e a n i m p o r t a n t clue t o w a r d i m p r o v i n g your product or sales position
. . . S p e a k e r s at this symposium give simple rules to
b e f o l l o w e d in the fine a r t of h a n d l i n g customer complaints
COMPLAINTS, like death and taxes, are inevitable and unavoidable in a business that involves dealer and customer. And, like the weather m tins (lay and age, people are not only talking about them; they are do ; '% something about them. What eh ileal companies are doing about customer complaints was the subject of a symposium held at the AMERICAN C H E M I C A L SOCIETY'S 118th national meet-
ing by the Chemical Marketing Sub-Division of the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Approaches to complaints a r e in many basic ways quite similar, whether a company manufactures industrial chemicals or aspirin tablets. Although the two companies may take slightly different tacks, their fundamental psychology is similar. The six papers heard at the ACS symposium stressed the importance of a positive, constructive approach to complaints, rather than a negative, or nuisance, approach. Five prime rules emerged clearly from the symposium. They may be briefly noted as: 1. Answer promptly. 2. Investigate thoroughly. 3. Listen carefully—to the originator of the complaint. 4. Be diplomatic. 5. Profit from the complaint. The customer is not always right, as Lynn A. Watt, symposium chairman, pointed out in introducing t h e speakers. Whether he is or not is frequently unimportant. The vital factor is to make sure he is ultimately satisfied and still a good customer. If a company can d o this, and at the same time derive some benefit from its investigation of die cause of the complaint, then that company h a s mastered die art of handling customer complaints. 542
manager and his assistant, process control supervisor, control laboratory supervisor, shipping superintendent, and technical service division. If the cause of the complaint lies in Westvaco's plant, the fault may lie specifically with one of six or seven possible sources. Mr. Reilly listed them as: production, analysis, packaging, storage, invoicing, or shipment. Sometimes an intermediary is at fault. Carriers, jobbers, warehouses, suppliers, or subcontractors may be able to supply the answer to the difficulty. Once in a while the sales department is at fault in over-selling a product. And occasionally the purchaser, himself, is the source of his own complaint, either through improper handling in his receiving department or lack
How the Westvaco Chemical Division of the Food Machinery and Chemical Corp. approaches this problem was outlined by W. J. Riley, w h o read a paper prepared in collaboration with C. F. Sharrard. Westvaco's procedure demands a prompt acknowledgement ot the complaint, laying the groundwork tor a friendly answer to it. Each speaker at the symposium agreed without exception that promptness is of prime importance in dealing with a complaint. After acknowledgment, each complaint is then numbered and formally "opened" by sending copies to a standard route list: divisional and district sales manager, salesmen, accounting department, order department, production specialist, plant
SYMPOSIUM O N I I
COMPLAINTS
Presented by the Chemical Marketing Sub-Division of the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry at the 118th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, Sept. 6, 1950
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Introductory Remarks
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Importance of Technical Service in Handling Complaints H.J. Ratti, National
L. A. Watt,
Monsanto Chemical
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Customer Complaints Guides t o Better Products . . . W. J. Clayton, J. H. Reppeto, and R. S. Piper, Minnesota Mining & Mfg. Co.
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Product
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Complaint Handling by a Chemical Company W'. J. Riley and G. F. Sharrard, Food Machinery and Chemical
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The Customer Complaint—An Opportunity G. A. Harrington, Socony-Vacuum Oil
Lead Co.
Complaints C. F. Connor and J. M. Flounders, B. F. Goodrich
Problems W i t h Pills and Potions .
CHEMICAL
. A. Lee Caldwell,
AND
Co.
Co. Corp. Co.
Eli Lilly & Co.
ENGINEERING
NEWS
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IHVESTOSATI THOROUGHLY
PROJVOTIY
DIPLOMATIC
PROFIT FROM THE COMPIÂIIOT
Five Rules for Handling Complaints ol technological know-how in the use of the product or failure to advise Westvaco ol his specifications. It experimental work is necessary to get to the bottom of the trouble, the laboratories go to work checking returned samples against a standard in the control laboratory. Process control looks into engineering angles. The technical department is called in if fundamental research appears to be called for. When a logical explanation for the complaint has been found, if the fault lies with Westvaco, the customer's wishes are consulted. If he simply asks for correction of the deficiency or replacement ol a faulty shipment with satisfactory material, the matter is quickly taken care of. If a 'serious loss has occurred, the customer receives a credit for his loss if his claim is justifiable. Don't Quit W h e n Customer Appears Satisfied Once the customer is satisfied, a final report classifying the nature ol the complaint is sent to the recipients of the original "opener." Westvaco, say> Mr. Riley, considers this classification of complaints most important to the company in helping it put a finger on original sources of trouble in its plant. A constant review of complaints i> maintained, Mr. Riley continued, to "take the pulse of the patient." Weekly reports are filed on complaint activity, on the basis of which a chart, or "barometer," of complaint activity is kept u p to date. All complaints in process over 21 days are individually listed on t h e weekly report with a notation of the next person to take action. Costs of individual complaints, when settlement is made, are tabulated. I n an annual report, the current year's performance is compared to that of past years. Finding a just and equitable comparison has proved difficult, Mr. Riley said. At present, only numerical interdepartmental comparisons are made. " T h e best base for comparison is probably percent of profit lost d u e to complaints," Mr. Riley concluded. VOLUME
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times, the seat of the trouble lies in the But there is another face to the coin, customer's plant. In such cases a diploas \V. J. Clayton, technical director of the adhesives and coatings division of Minnematic approach is essential to the satisfacsota Mining and Mfg. Co. showed in a tory handling of the complaint. paper, "Customer Complaints as Guides Handled to the satisfaction of the custo Better Products," prepared with R. S. tomer, a complaint of this nature can Piper and J. H. Reppeto. Mr. Clayton establish a firmer bond and a friendlier cited four specific instances in which his relationship between supplier and cuscompany had been able to turn the tables tomer than thousands of dollars spent on and emerge from a complaint investigapublic relations, at least two speakers at tion with a new or improved product to the symposium felt. It affords the techoffer its customers. nician an opportunity to make plant conOne such complaint involved a striptacts he might otherwise have no access pable coating Minnesota had developed to, as George A. Harrington, Socony-Vacfor the temporary protection of polished uum Oil Co., I n c . pointed out in his metal surfaces during forming and drawpaper, " T h e Customer's Complaint — an ing operations. A customer who had tried Opportunity." A complaint may afford a just about all the products of this type on salesman an opportunity to get to know the market, complained that they were all his customers' processes better and t h u s so variable in application characteristics provide him with a wider scope for selling that he could develop no fast, efficient additional products. method for applying the coating to the metal. A run might go well one time, Taking the "Bugs" Out while the next time it would be all out of Mr. Harrington told of an instance in kilter with other production factors. which a salesman, called in to answer a complaint about the performance of a The film characteristics of Minnesota's lubricating oil, literally h a d to take the products were considered superior by the bugs out of a customer's machinery. An customer, but the drying time and sprayaccount had complained one summer ing characteristics were as variable as all that the turbine oil it had been using was the others. The company set out to learn not performing satisfactorily. Investigawhat the customer considered optimum tion proved that the same oil was being properties. Then the laboratory tried to used in the same turbines, and theoretiprovide a product with these properties. cally there should be nothing wrong. T h e While the customer's specifications could only change the salesman noted in procenot be exactly met, a compromise was dure was that the filtered oil storage tanks reached to produce a uniform product had been moved from the basement to with a narrow viscosity range and satisthe turbine room, upstairs. factory drying cycle. Analysis of a sample of the oil from This uniform product, born of a comthe tanks showed, however, that some plaint, m a d e it possible for Minnesota to unidentifiable, extraneous matter was, inget a "head start" on competition, said deed, present. For weeks the engineer Mr. Clayton. Most important, the user looked for the source of contamination was sufficiently confident of the improved without success. product to invest several thousand dol"Then one evening," Mr. Harrington lars in a conveyor line and automatic said, "still at a loss for an answer to the spray set-up, enabling him to run parts problem, the engineer decided to make through faster. W h e r e he had once procone more visit to the turbine. He arrived essed from 5 to 7 thousand units a day, during the night shift and noticed for the improved coating allowed him to run 35 first time that a large lighting fixture h u n g to 50 thousand units a day. directly over the open storage tanks. As It is not always possible to solve a he watched, a J u n e b u g flew through t h e problem arising from a complaint in the unscreened window t o the light, hit the producer's own laboratory. A good many
» FEBRUARY
12,
1951
543
find any available chemical t h a t will do the job required. In such instances, a study of t h e virtues and failings of exist ing chemical products may very well supply the pattern tor a hypothetical prod uct which, through the application of re search, may give rise to a new commercial chemical.
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ί^Τ>~Ί reflector, and tell into the storage tank of hut oil. Here was t h e contamination. "The engineer removed a hu.shel basket of June bugs from the bottom ot the storage tank, cleaned it out, arranged ior a screen to be put over the top to keep out new arrivals, a n d t h e problem was solved." The successful marketing of chemical products depends upon an adequate tech nical service to supplement production and sales efforts, and often w h e n a complaint arises, the technical department finds it self "m the middle," II. J. Ratti of Na tional L e a d pointed out. Complaints will funnel in to the technical service from the sales manager, and many can b e handled by the transmittal of service laboratorv data by the salesman to t h e customer. A service laboratory should b e e q u i p p e d to supply information for the broad applica tion of the chemical product in all of its fields of use. Explore All Avenues Sometimes a single service laboratorv unit will be able to h a n d l e all t h e applica tions of a company's production. Usually, various sections of t h e laboratory unit will b e assigned to h a n d l e either the* needs of a particular industry' group, or in some cases, a single large industry. Puint. var nish, and lacquer may b e grouped to gether, while r u b b e r and other thermo plastic and thermosetting plastics may he handled by another laboratory section. T h e r e are occasions w h e n the technical service cannot find t h e answer to a com plaint in the producing company's own laboratories and must go into the cus tomer's own plant. This type of technical service, which requires t h e utmost skill a n d diplomacy, is sometimes humorously called "running t h e customer's e q u i p ment." W h i l e m a n y companies do find such a service useful a n d necessary in clearing up various complaints, Mr. Ratti m a d e t h e point that there are times when a thorough investigation on t h e part of t h e technical service man does not come u p with an answer. He m a y find that the particular chemical the manufacturer is complaining about cannot fill t h e require m e n t n e e d e d to satisfy t h e customer. T h e technical service m a n m a v he unable to 544
Complaints on C o n s u m e r G o o d s Selling a finished product, which finds its w a y directly into the h a n d s of t h e in dividual consumer w h o has a personnel interest in its use and applications, re quires a slightly different approach on the part of the manufacturer to customer com plaints. W h i l e the m a n u f a c t u r e r of retail merchandise most also observe the five basic rules, he cannot, on the other b a n d , always satisfy every customer with a par ticular item of consumer goods. If one customer d e m a n d s a product of much higher quality than would normally sat isfy the majority of customers, the manu facturer cannot afford to cater to the individual at the expense of t h e majority by p u t t i n g on the market a higher-priced, higher-quality product than the mass market calls for. Problems of this type were the subject of papers read at the symposium by representatives of R. F . Goodrich Co., r u b b e r goods manufacturers, and Eli Lilly & Co., drug producers. A. Lee Caldwell, head of t h e product technical service d e p a r t m e n t at the drug company spoke about some "Problems with Pills and Potions." P o i n t i n g u p numerous specific causes for complaints, he said a d r u g product can measure u p to all kinds of specifications as t o effective ness, purity, taste, odor, a n d color—it can b e technically perfect—and still bring in a disproportionate n u m b e r -«of com plaints if it is not well-packaged. Fre quently, complaints directed against a product prove actually to b e complaints against t h e p a c k a g e or container. A hardto-open bottle c a p , for example, may cause a customer to switch to another product. Pharmacists and lay users, alike. are intolerant of packages from which the contents are not entirely o b t a i n a b l e or are obtainable with difficulty. At Eli Lilly, Dr. Caldwell said, com plaint h a n d l i n g h a s recently been m a d e a part of the responsibility of a newlyorganized product technical service de partment which in turn is part of t h e re search a n d control division. "In this manner," he said, "this portion of the operations of t h e d e p a r t m e n t n o t only will be correlated to other functions, b u t will have the potential for influencing or pro moting research activities on old and new pharmaceuticals." Eli Lilly also attempts to deal with complaints before they occur t h r o u g h in spection before a product leaves the plant, a point m a d e by a n u m b e r of other symposium speakers. Precautions are taken to h a v e no tablets of t h e same size and color in production at t h e same time in the same location. In short, every effort is m a d e to preclude the possibility of error in identification or labeling. C H E M I C A L
T h e importance of thorough inspection w a s stressed by J. M. F l o u n d e r s of B. F . Goodrich Co. in his p a p e r on "Product C o m p l a i n t s " p r e p a r e d in collaboration with C. F. Conner. Avoiding the shipment of defective goods is a prime requisite, h e stressed. A sales d e p a r t m e n t may justifi ably lake the attitude that failure to get an order is not as serious a shortcoming as the shipment of defective goods to fill an order it has succeeded in obtaining. Inspection costs, however, must be cal culated in proportion to their relative im p o r t a n c e . As Mr. F l o u n d e r s pointed out, it would he quite easy to inspect any product to t h e point w h e r e t h e inspection cost proved prohibitive. It is only from accurate records of t h e amount of defective m e r c h a n d i s e that t h e proper limits of quality control a n d inspection m a y b e established, he said. Mr. Flounders referred to t h e work that h a s been d o n e on the general subject of statistical quality control d u r i n g the past 20 or 30 years. "Systems have b e e n estab lished," he said, " w h i c h will achieve vir tually any d e g r e e of quality control that is desired. In those services w h e r e a prod uct failure c a n result in loss of life or property, a statistical quality control to insure 98''* a d e q u a t e material is some times used. T h i s p e r c e n t a g e may b e m u c h , m u c h lower on competitive items w h e r e t h e safety h a z a r d i insignificant a n d w h e r e t h e n u m b e r of product complaints a r e very small." In discussing product complaints result ing from i n a d e q u a c y , Mr. Flounders re t u r n e d to a point that m a n y of the other speakers at t h e symposium m a d e . "In our opinion," he said, "one of t h e biggest driving forces in product improvement a n d development comes from product complaints in this category. W e h a v e n u m e r o u s specific instances where 1 investi gation of t h e service as a result of an 'inadequacy" complaint has resulted in a n e w design that a d e q u a t e l y overcame t h e inadequacy, and still resulted in a lower cost item." In h a n d l i n g customer complaints, t h e symposium speakers seem to agree t h a t "it's an ill wind that blows no good." AND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
