If you own or manage a company or organization, your customers are among your most important assets. If they have complaints, you should have a system in place to track and handle that feedback. Tracking the complaints won't only benefit the customer; it can also benefit your company by showing you where your organization needs to improve to keep customers happy.

Things You Will Need

  • Excel

  • Computer

Establish a database to store the complaints in; an Excel spreadsheet is one option. Customer management software, such as "Complaints Software," "Metric Stream" and "Customer Expressions," can be purchased and downloaded to track complaints.

If using Excel, define categories in the spreadsheet to capture information such as the date the customer's complaint was received, the name of person who received the complaint, the specific issue, details about the issue and any promises made to the customer by the person who received the complaint.

Assign a ticket or numbering system to the complaints so they can be easily found in the database. Provide the ticket number to the customer so she can call in and check the status of her complaint with anyone who answers the phone at your company.

Document in the database the dates action was taken to begin resolving the customer's complaint. For example, if a field technician is being dispatched to resolve a problem for an Internet customer's DSL modem, document the date that the dispatch was requested and the date the technician was actually dispatched.

Note follow-up calls to the customer. This can include calls that were made to let the customer know her complaint is being addressed, as well as calls to verify whether the problem was resolved to her satisfaction. If the customer calls to check on the status of her complaint, that call should also be documented in the system along with the date.

Close the complaint with notes that indicate how it was resolved. This should include the date the company considered the issue resolved and the date the customer verified that resolution. If the customer was satisfied with the resolution, indicate that. If the customer was still irate after resolution, indicate that as well.