Standard Operating Procedure

SOP-Customer Service

Standard
Operating
Procedure (SOP)
for
Customer
Service
For

(Company Name)
 Standard Operating Procedure
SOP-Customer Service
Complaint Handling Procedure

Overview  This is the official Complaint Handling

Procedure across _____________________
Objectives  To deliver a consistent, high-quality and
accountable response to complaints across
_____________________
 This quality procedure is in line with the
overall Customer
Service Strategy and industry ‘best practise’
Services Covered  All Services

Process Overview
The following key steps must be followed for all customer complaints received by Company
X staff:

Receive & classify

Acknowledge

Investigate

Resolve & Confirm

Respond to Customer

Follow up
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SOP-Customer Service

QA & Close

The requirements for each of these steps is detailed below

Summary
 Ensure that all potential issues are captured by the organisation, and classified for
escalation, review and action as required.
 Any complaint, issue or negative customer interaction (whether this is formally
logged by the customer or not), must be logged and classified for action.
 All of these complaints must be formally logged using the Ciclops or paper-based
forms (see below)

All complaints must be prioritised as follows:

Priority 1 –
 Urgent, potential high business impact. The SLA requires a response to the
customer within 3 working days.
 This should be used (sparingly) for major issues where the customer may be either a
large national supplier, or any customer who is considering moving their business
from _____________________.
 Also this could be used in a situation where the customer may be in a position to
influence or make public statements that would impact upon the
_____________________ brand or reputation.

Priority 2, -
 Non-urgent, lower business impact. The SLA requires a response to the customer
within 2 working weeks.
 This should be used for most complaints with individual customers, as this allows a
reasonable time to collect information and produce a balanced response.
 Discretion and flexibility should be exercised in prioritising all complaints.
 The staff member logging the complaint should review the complaint and it’s priority
with the Office Manager before proceeding to the next step.
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SOP-Customer Service
 Office Managers will decide on the appropriate person(s) to carry out subsequent
steps, including the investigation.
 All Priority 1 complaints must be escalated immediately to the Office and/or
Operations Manager.

Summary
 Ensure that every complaint receives a formal written acknowledgement, containing
an expectation of when they will receive a response, and the person dealing with it.
 All complaints, regardless of priority, should receive a pro forma (see below)
acknowledgement sent out 1st class mail on the day of receipt.

Summary
 Follow up all aspects of the complaint, both internal and external, to ensure that the
key facts are identified and clarified.
 The priority of the complaint will drive the timescale for completion (3 days for
urgent or 2 weeks for non-urgent).
 All areas of interaction and communication should be established (who, what, where,
when, why etc) and documented where possible.

Summary
 Ensure that the final resolution is clear and fair. Also confirm the proposed action and
resolution with another senior person.
 Ensure that the proposed resolution meets corporate guidelines and does not prejudice
Company X in any unnecessary legal or financial manner.
 Document the proposed action and discuss and agree with Office and/or Operations
Manager.
 Discuss and review the solution form both the corporate and customer viewpoint to
ensure fairness and clarity.
 The review should include recognition and documentation of any underlying issues
that have contributed to the complaint and recommendations for actions to prevent
further occurrence.
 This should then be reviewed as part of the bi-monthly SLA and CSAT reviews.
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SOP-Customer Service

Summary
 Provide the customer with the resolution within the timescales promised.
 The details of the findings and proposed resolution should be clearly explained (in
written or verbal form as appropriate) to the customer- within the agreed timescales.
 If this cannot be done on time the customer should be contacted by telephone to
request further time.

The follow up should identify the following

 Is the customer satisfied with the response.
 Did they feel that their complaint was properly and fairly handled?
 Any negative responses to these questions should be referred to Operations Managers
for action and direct follow up with customers.

Summary
 Ensure that the organisation as a whole is aware of complaints and any underlying
issues. Plan actions to remove these and prevent future recurrence.
 All complaints should be reviewed monthly as part of the SLA/CSAT review
meetings.
 Any complaints where action can be taken to avoid recurrent must be acted upon and
raised with the appropriate managers/teams across the organisation.

Complaint logging form/screen (Key details required)

Raised by Company X staff member receiving and

logging the complaint

Date Date and time received

Complaint Code Classification of complaint type

Complaint Reference No. System generated

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SOP-Customer Service

Customer Name Customer Name

Customer Address Customer Address

Customer Contact number

Owner/assigned to

Corrective action/resolution

Resolution confirmed by

Customer Contacted

Customer Followed up

Key Issues identified

Long term actions required

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SOP-Customer Service

Issues and actions accepted –

SAL/CSAT team

Customer Contact number

Service Contract type Customer’s current contract (if any)

Product or service referred to Fault or PM

Description Description of complaint – details

Business Impact Description of impact on customers

business/operation

Priority Complaint
priority 1 –
urgent
2- non-urgent

Acknowledgement Date letter sent

Acknowledgement letter

Dear __________

Thank you for contacting us today with your complaint/problem.

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SOP-Customer Service
We are sorry that you have had to do this and apologise for any inconvenience this has
caused you. We view complaints as positive and helpful feedback and will do everything we
can to resolve this fairly and quickly to your satisfaction.
We aim to respond to you within 3 days/2weeks with a suitable resolution. Should you need
to contact us again regarding this matter, your reference number is ______________.
I look forward to reaching a suitable resolution to this matter and thank you again for taking
time to raise this with us.

Thanking you,
Regards,
_______