Implementing Active Complaint Management

The goal of implementation is to introduce a system of complaint management in the desired form quickly and without any major difficulties. In order to accomplish this goal, a series of measures must be realized in phases. Moreover, significant barriers to implementation must be overcome, so that a successful introduction is guaranteed. Five phases of the implementation process should be distinguished: (1) The decision phase—preparation of the top management decision to introduce complaint management; (2) The project organization phase—establishment of the project organization; (3) The analysis phase—analysis of the actual state of complaint handling and the internal and external framework conditions; (4) The conception phase—definition of the objectives of complaint management, choice of the basic complaint management strategy, development of a concept for all complaint management tasks and drawing up a budget and schedule; (5) The introduction phase—implementation of the new processes and changes in the company’s organizational structure and execution of internal audits. The introduction of complaint management is generally met with considerable resistance. This must be taken into account during implementation. In this chapter, the main acceptance, management and organizational barriers to the introduction of complaint management are discussed in detail, along with possible countermeasures.