Addressing Customer Concerns, Issues, and Complaints

Successfully meeting and ideally exceeding the expectations of its customers is a mission-critical role and responsibility of contemporary organizations and their employees. Customers typically decide to do business with an organization after determining that the attributes of its product and/or service offerings are consistent with their wants, needs, and desires and thus align with their expectations. Customers have various expectations regarding the products and/or services that an organization provides. These expectations include that the product or service will be consistent in areas including features, functionality, and quality with that promised in an organization’s representations that resulted in entering into a product and/or service arrangement with that organization. The actual fulfillment of an organization’s promises is therefore an essential and reasonable expectation of its customers. When a customer perceives that the product and/or service that they received is not what they were promised or other logistical issues exist regarding a transaction, customers often communicate their concerns, issues, or complaints. Visionary organizations and their leaders recognize the mission-critical importance of promptly and professionally addressing all concerns, issues, and complaints received from their customers.