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Four things you must know about handling product liability complaints

Frontline customer service representatives are the greatest influence in keeping product complaints from becoming product claim s.

It’s absolutely true. Your customer service representatives are the first line of defense against product liability claims and their carefully planned response and diligent handling of the complaint can keep the issue out of court.

From the first moment you and your team realize you’re dealing with a product liability complaint, there are four things you need to do, right off the bat and I’ll walk you through  each of them step-by-step.

1. Log all complaints.

Product liability complaints must be documented completely with verbatim comments from both the customer and the customer service representative. If you use a contact management system to track complaints, this is where you'll want to capture the product liability complaints. In addition to complete documentation, you'll need to archive the data for at least three years. If you don't have a sophisticated complaint tracking system, document the complaint completely in writing.

2. Get complete information from the customer.

Attorneys have found that the first description of the incident by the consumer tends to be the most truthful and least calculated. So get as much detail on what happened and exactly how the incident occurred as you possibly can during the initial phone call with your customer. You need to know this: Information obtained by you from the customer may serve as impeachment evidence if the consumer later changes their story…so be sure to get as much information as you possibly can. Capturing this data with complete accuracy is CRITICAL.

3. Disseminate complaints to Quality Assurance and Legal departments. Every product liability complaint needs to be escalated for review and investigation by your Quality Assurance and Legal Departments. Your Quality Assurance Department needs the complaint data so they can improve the product, or at the very least research the problem. Your Legal Department needs this data so they can initiate their investigation before notice of a claim is given. (Note: Many contact management systems will automatically do this when a specific category is selected).

4. Resolve the complaint immediately. The faster the resolution, the lesser the chance of the customer suing the company.

Do these four simple things whenever you’re faced with a product liability complaint and you will have captured everything your organization will need to investigate the claim and protect the organization from a product liability lawsuit.  

Take the next step in learning to successfully manage product liability claims

If you have any concerns at all about the way your employees handle product liability complaints or you're not sure your organization is doing everything possible to minimize the risks of product liability claims, you need to explore my first ever live broadcast of Beyond WOW Complaint Resolution on October 8th and 15th. An entire module is being dedicated to handling product liability claims and we discuss such topics as how to avoid damaging admissions and the importance of getting the product from the customer, and the best things to say to product liability claimants. Get the full story here.

About the Author

Myra Golden is one of the service industry's most prominent trainers and a highly regarded business growth strategist. Companies hire Myra and her team to help them build, recover, and strengthen customer relationships. She can be reached at 866-873-8419 or by email at myra@myragolden.com. She also has a website: www.myragolden.com. 

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