Case of Complaining Customer

Sukriti Batra(P41181) | Akash Sood(P41135) | Sourav Sarkar(P41179) | Madhvi Shridhar(P41157)

Shubhangi Bansal(P41178) | Subhakanta Nayak(P41180) | Harsh Ruparelia(P41189)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mr. J.W. Sewickley, President, Presto Cleaners has received a customer complaint in a few months of
having installed a new computer system in his organization designed to cut the customers’ waiting time
and simplify drop-off and pick-up processes. The complainant Mr. George Shelton reported his bags of
clothes with the company had gone missing and demanded compensation and an apology from Paul
Hoffner of the customer complaint office. In his complaint Mr. Shelton conveyed how because of the new
technology he had to purchase a new bag each time to give his cloths for laundry, the excess time the staff
took to cater to individual customer, how his bag of clothes got misplaced and when he tried seeking an
answer for the same, the customer complaint office didn’t entertain him and kept him in dark regarding
his missing cloths the entire procedure and process the company followed to file an official refund claim.
Even the refund form wasn’t supplied to him on time and also demanded by Presto Cleaner to supply the
receipt of the clothing and the counter receipt. Sewickley when asked for a response from Hoffner, it read
something like he was following the company policy and wasn’t ignoring the complaint rather was
making extra efforts to make sure the customer gets his clothes back, he further clarified that he didn’t
demanded those receipts rather it was a request that if such documents can be provided to assess the loss
for compensation. Hoffner also put forth he was ready to roll out an apology because a mistake was done
but also highlighted that the persuasion by Mr. Shelton received compensation even after he got his
clothes back, making him question his integrity. He even questioned Mr. Sewickley that these were
extenuating circumstances and some customers are not worth keeping. The entire scenario highlights that
the newer system wasn’t popular among the staff and they weren’t trained to use it efficiently, which
resulted in the misplacement of the bag of clothes. Presto Cleaners should roll out an apology to Mr.
Shelton as he was a loyal customer and even the compensation should be processed for this case because
the fault was on part of the company which because of its inability to cope with the new system misplaced
the bag and because of the company’s policies that relied to much on faith caused a delay in providing
any response to Mr. Shelton.
I. SITUATION ANALYSIS
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE SITUATION

Mr. J.W. Sewickley, president of Presto Cleaner is in a state of dilemma after receiving two letters. One
from an angry customer Mr. George Shelton expressing his dissatisfaction towards the new computer
system and more importantly towards the company’s complaint handling operations. He is demanding a
full refund for the order that was lost for 2 months, full payment for the 4 new shirts that he had to buy,
and an apology from Mr. Hoffner from the customer complaint office.

Mr. Hoffner explained his side of the story agreeing that a mistake was made on their end and states the
reasons for the same. According to Mr. Hoffner, one free order and a written apology on behalf of both of
them should suffice, and if this is not satisfactory for Mr. Shelton, a customer who is as demanding and
persistent as him might be worth losing.

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND OBJECTIVE

Presto Cleaners faces a deep issue of efficiently handling their customer complaints. Mr. JWS needs to
come up with a solution to curb the ineffectiveness of the new system and simultaneously avoid the
bad-mouthing of the company from its customers to maintain the image of its offered services.

3. CRITERIA
1. Public image of Presto Cleaners
The chosen action to address the problem statement shall focus on maintaining the customer relationships
and the quality of service provided that sustains the name of the company in the market.

2. Customer satisfaction
The solution chosen should give the customers assurance that the best possible service is given to them
that is worth their time and for the price they pay.

3.​ ​Standardized process of the operations

The variety in the process followed for communication and a large number of operations and services
within the company should be connected to a standard network spread across all the locations.

4. Financial Viability
The solution/action chosen by the company should be financially viable considering the costs and its long
term functionality.

II.DECISION PROCESS
1.GENERATION OF ALTERNATIVES -

Alternative 1​:
Under this alternative, the organization can apologize to the customer and give some compensation to Mr.
George in his next order. Simultaneously, the employees will be trained on the new interface properly.
Alternative 2:
Under this alternative, the organization can choose to remain oblivious to the customer’s concern and not
apologize or refund back the demanded amount by him.
Alternative 3:
Under this alternative, the organization can look into the concerns of the customers and set up kiosks with
user-friendly interface systems, whereby the customers can fill in the required laundry details and save
time.
Alternative 4:
Under this alternative, the organization can come up with a response system to handle customer
complaints within a given time frame.

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4

Alternatives Public Image of Customer Standardized process Financial

Available the Company Satisfaction of the operations Viability

Alternative 1 Fulfilled Fulfilled Fulfilled Maybe

Alternative 2 Not Fulfilled Not Fulfilled Not Fulfilled Not Fulfilled

Alternative 3 Maybe Fulfilled Fulfilled Maybe

Alternative 4 Maybe Fulfilled Fulfilled Not Fulfilled

2. EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES

Public Image of the Company: ​Of all the alternatives, if we go for alternative 2 it will impact the image
of the company due to the negative word of mouth. While going for alternative 1, will help in preventing
that negative impact and also maintain the public image they had. While opting for the alternative 3 and 4
may increase the customer satisfaction, there may not be any impact on the public image of the company.
Customer Satisfaction: ​The only alternative that violates this criteria is alternative 2 and that will heavily
impact on this component and also lead to the decline of the public image of the company. Rest all other
alternatives work towards the enhancement of the overall customer experience.

Standardized process of the operations: ​Standardization of the process leads the error less system in the
company. The alternatives 3 and 4 clearly move towards the standardization of the process, while
alternatives 1 and 2 have no such impact on the standardization.

Financial Viability: ​At the end all firms want to maximize their financial status and will work towards
increasing the wealth of the stakeholders. Hence looking at the financial viability of the alternatives
becomes important. While alternative 1 and 3 may have the least impact on the financial viability as the
cost incurred in it is low. But in alternative 2, it has the potential to impact all the future businesses and
have a huge financial impact. While implementing alternative 4, we take a huge cost to implement all
together a new system.

CONCLUSION
As per the evaluation of all the four alternatives we will be going with the Alternative 1, as it is satisfying
all our defined criteria. By implementing this solution we will be able to train the employees and ensure
that the mistake won’t get repeated in future. Also, as we will be providing Mr. George free service in his
next one or two orders so there would be incentive to suppress his dissatisfaction. This will help us in
satisfying and retaining our old customer, Mr & Mrs. George and also will not hamper the image of the
company.

***