Customer complaints

Microscopists in every technical field use the microscope to characterize, compare, and identify a wide variety of substances, eg, protozoa, bacteria, vimses, and plant and animal tissue, as well as minerals, building materials, ceramics, metals, abrasives, pigments, foods, dmgs, explosives, fibers, hairs, and even single atoms. In addition, microscopists help to solve production and process problems, control quaUty, and handle trouble-shooting problems and customer complaints. Microscopists also do basic research in instmmentation, new techniques, specimen preparation, and appHcations of microscopy. The areas of appHcation include forensic trace evidence, contamination analysis, art conservation and authentication, and asbestos control, among others. 

The responsibihties of the quahty assurance unit generally fall into two categories support for or improvement of the existing quahty system (31). The support activities of QA often include employee training, quahty system documentation, method vahdation and method transfer, audit, and customer complaints. 

The second aspect of quahty documentation is to detail how the work processes referred to in the manual are performed. The QA unit is often the organization responsible for issuing a set of procedures designed to assure conformance to the appropriate standards or to company poHcy. The procedures, often called standard operation procedures (SOP) or quahty operating procedures (QOP), should include such topics as customer complaints, audit protocols, stabihty testing, preparation of COAs, test method vahdation, etc. 

Customer Complaints. A failure in a company s quaUty system often shows up in the form of a customer complaint. These reports of nonconformances, whether for product or service deficiencies, are typically received by the sales or customer service organization and then channeled to QA. Quahty assurance often tracks the progress and coordinates the complaint investigation. Once completed, it is QA that reviews the report of the investigation and corrective action for thoroughness and efficacy. QuaUty assurance then either passes the information along to the sales or customer service organization or contacts the customer direcdy. 

Such identification (of nonconformities) can occur as a result of a customer complaint. 

The auditor needs to assess all customer complaints and determine if they arose from a system nonconformity and if so initiate the de-certification process. 

Customer complaints can warrant de-certification action by the certification body if the complaint was as a result of a system nonconformity. 

You will need to provide evidence of effective management of customer complaints with your application for certification. 

Are customer complaints and reports of product nonconformities handled in accordance with documented procedures ... 

Gustomer dissatisfaction will be noticeable from the number and nature of customer complaints collected and analyzed as part of your corrective action procedures (see Part 2 Ghapter 14). This data provides objective documentation or evidence and again can be reduced to indices to indicate trends. 

You can determine this by providing the evidence of customer complaints, market share statistics, competitor statistics, warranty claims, customer satisfaction surveys, etc. 

Design the quality system from the top down by analyzing your business processes and then implement from the bottom up, starting with customer complaints. 

Failure investigation procedure Nonconforming material review procedure Customer complaints procedure Quality system document change procedure Specification change procedure Maintenance procedures... 

The standard requires the corrective action procedures to include the effective handling of customer complaints. 

You can only handle effectively those customer complaints that you receive and record. Customers may complain about your products and services but not go the extent of writing a formal complaint. Complaints may arise in conversation between the customer and your sales and service staff and this is where you need to instill discipline and ensure the complaints are recorded. Your customer complaints procedure should cover the following aspects to be effective ... 

The method of capturing the customer complaints from all interface channels with the customer... 

Customer complaints are addressed under the heading of corrective action however, you should not limit your action to eliminating the cause and preventing recurrence. You also need to take remedial action to deal with the particular complaint - hence the requirements of element 4.13 also apply to the handling of customer complaints. 

The reports of nonconformities could be internal or external reports of nonconformities although the standard does not make this clear. Internal reports of nonconformities should be covered by the requirements of clause 4.13. The next requirement concerning the investigation of nonconformities does relate to both internal and external reports. An external nonconformity report is not necessarily a customer complaint. The customer may have merely returned the product claiming it to be defective. When the customer has done this several times a complaint may well follow. 

Assuming that the standard is only referring to external reports of nonconformities, your procedures should cover very similar processes to those for handling customer complaints. The procedures should cover ... 

Your corrective action procedures need to cover the collection and analysis of product nonconformity reports and the collection and analysis of process data to reveal process nonconformities. The corrective action provisions of your internal audit procedure need to address the causes of the nonconformities and you will need an additional procedure to deal with external audits, investigating the cause of any nonconformities and recording the results. The procedure also needs to cover the investigation of customer complaints as the previous requirement only deals with the handling of complaints. 

To analyze an /thingyou need data. If you have no data on processes, work operations, concessions, service reports, and customer complaints, this clause requires that you create some. Without data you cannot know if your processes are under control, if your customers are satisfied, if your service personnel carried out the planned service, etc. It is not sufficient to claim that you have had no concessions or customer complaints. You need to have a system for capturing such matters should they occur. Introducing ISO 9000 does generate a lot of paper but it should all serve a specific purpose. Plan the data requirements carefully so that you ... 

Quality records are those records identified in Chapter 16. This is a bit of a catchall as concessions, service reports, customer complaints, and data from processes and work operations are all quality records. However, the standard does not cross refer to clause 4.16 at every mention of records or similar document and therefore the requirements of 4.16 only apply in those cases where it is referenced. Service reports, for instance, do not need to comply with the requirements of clause 4.16. 

Customer complaints are any reports of dissatisfaction from the customer whether written by the customer or recorded from a telephone conversation. 

Customer complaints Warranty claims Failure analysis reports Process capability studies Service reports Concessions Change requests Subcontractor assessments Performance analysis Deviations and waivers Contract change records Quality cost data External Quality Audit records... 

An analysis of nonconformities, customer complaints, and other problems... 

Salame, M., No Customer Complaints On Taste When You Pick The Right... 

Monitoring and measurement - Establish customer complaints/feedback and internal audits processes, evaluate effectiveness of processes, verify product meets acceptance criteria... 

Despite extensive development and a rigorous adherence to procedures, one cannot guarantee absolutely that a medicine will never fail under the harsh abuses of real-life usage. A proper quality assurance system must include procedures for monitoring in-use performance and for responding to customer complaints. These must be followed up in great detail in order to decide whether one s carefully constructed schemes for product safety require modification, to prevent the incident recurring. 

Is there a program for handling customer complaints, complaint investigations, and corrective actions ... 

Can the application or system be used for product/sample recall, reconciliation, stock tracing, product history, or product-related customer complaints ... 

It is said that cleanliness is next to godliness and manufacturing plants are no exception to this maxim. Many of the contamination problems that occur in manufactured products have their origins in poor plant hygiene, resulting in uncertain product, customer complaints and unnecessarily high biocide addition levels. 

The preservatives I select for my formulations is much more limited than the ten listed in the above reference. The products which I develop for a company with natural ingredients image, restricted me to the para hydroxy benzoic acids, benzyl alcohol and phenoxyethanol. I have been allowed to use Myavert C during the last two years due to increase in customer complaints which was assumed to be due to the high levels of phenoxyethanol and benzyl alcohol used hence allergic reaction to the... 

Wherever possible I aim to incorporate Myavert C, which has one of the lowest irritation potentials in combination with parabens or potassium sorbate. This combination has reduced the customer complaints from a low to negligible level in all face products in which this combination is used by a skin-care marketing company. Typically the complaints for allergic reaction is in the range of one in 200,000 to 1,000,000 packs sold for face products suitable for all skin types. However, there are... 

If one wishes to predict the future of additive analysis in polymers, it is relevant to consider the prospects of further evolution of polymeric and additive materials the influence of legislation and environment instrumental developments and currently unsolved problems. It then becomes clear that additive analysis stands a fair chance remaining in use for some time, certainly in a strongly competitive environment, which will require improved product design specifications, quality assurance and research for new applications. As ideal production environments are rare, customer complaints will also require continuous attention. Government regulations are another reason for continuous analytical efforts. 

Adhesion of, e.g., paint on polymeric materials such as in automotive bumper material may be poor because of silicon grease being present at the surface as a result of handling the bumper before applying the paint. By using ESCA such problems can be tackled easily and customer complaints can be refuted or accepted. 

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