You may remember when consumer affairs program Fair Go ran an expose on a badly handled customer complaint that involved a mouse being found in a bag of frozen vegetables a few years ago. It shows the cost to reputation when complaints are poorly handled. When a complaint is made, it is an opportunity to demonstrate to your customers just how seriously you live your brand promise.

1. Collect the facts

Speak to the customer yourself. Find out what went wrong, how, to whom, and where. Don’t accept facts second-hand – sometimes, despite best intentions, they can be lost in translation.

2.    Ensure your staff know who to escalate complaints to and when

Your people will have the best of intentions when responding to complaints – but that doesn’t mean they will respond in an appropriate manner. Train senior staff to deal with complaints and ensure your team know to refer complaints to them. You should also have an agreed process for escalating serious complaints (ideally these would be part of your communications risk management plan).

3.    The response should be greater than the complaint

Many complaints that make their way to the media do so because the customer felt the organisation’s response didn’t reflect the seriousness of their complaint. When it comes to customer complaints, over-respond. Show your commitment to your product, and your customers, by being seen to take the issue seriously.

4.    Be accountable

Sometimes, the gravity of the complaint will demand that a very senior person – in some instances, the Chief Executive – contact the customer to apologise, offer recompense and work through solutions.

5.    Be timely and keep them informed

Respond quickly. While you will need to take some time to get your facts together and consult experts, keep your customer informed throughout.

6.    Rectify the situation

R.R.N. – Refund, Replace or Negotiate. If it is clear you are at fault, don’t beat around the bush. Be prepared to offer compensation to your customer for your mistake.

7.    Think beyond the complainant

Many customers complain because they’re concerned about the impacts for other customers. So, offering recompense for them should be only part of your approach. You also need to reassure them of what you’re doing to protect other customers – and that may include a recall. You’re better to announce your own recall than being forced to do so by a bad news story.

8.    Don’t hide or spin it

Customers are prepared to forgive mistakes in most instances. But they do not easily forgive organisations that make mistakes and then try to hide or spin it. The BP Gulf of Mexico disaster is a good example. Front up and take it seriously. Short-term pain is far better than dragging it out.

9.    Practice makes perfect

In some cases, a complaint is a crisis – such as a mouse in a bag of frozen vegetables. All companies, infrastructure and food companies in particular, should have crisis management plans in place and they should be practiced frequently. While the exact nature of the issue will always change, knowing the process to follow and what stakeholders to engage with will ensure the situation is handled well.

10.  Learn from it – even if it wasn’t yours

High profile issues arise when the same mistakes are repeated. Learn from your own mistakes – and just as importantly, learn from your competitors’ mistakes also.