What is a complaint, and what is a report?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with your product, service or conduct, where the customer expects a response. A report is a signal about a deviation, without anyone asking for an answer, such as an internal observation. You record both, but a complaint always needs an answer to the customer.
A remark on the phone or during a site visit can also be a complaint. So agree that anyone who hears one passes it on. Better one complaint too many recorded than a customer who feels unheard.
The six steps of complaint handling
A fixed sequence prevents complaints from being left or handled differently each time. Keep the steps light enough that they are followed even on a busy day. Also record who is responsible at each step, so a complaint never gets stuck between two departments.
- Receive: the complaint comes in, through whichever channel
- Record: capture the complaint immediately with the key details
- Acknowledge: tell the customer you have the complaint and when to expect an answer
- Assess and resolve: investigate what happened and put it right for the customer
- Tackle the cause: decide whether a measure is needed to prevent recurrence
- Give feedback and close: tell the customer what you did and close the case
Receipt: make complaining easy
A customer who has to make an effort to complain often does not, and tells others instead. Make clear where a complaint can be made and accept every channel: phone, email, a talk with the foreman or the project manager.
Assign one owner per complaint who keeps control. Confirm receipt quickly, for example within a working day or two, and say when the customer will get a substantive answer. Choose deadlines you can actually meet.
Recording: what do you capture?
A complaint that is not recorded does not exist for the organisation and cannot be analysed later. Use one register for all complaints, even those resolved immediately. At minimum it should contain:
- Date, channel and who received the complaint
- Customer, contact person and the project, order or product
- Description of the complaint in the customer's own words
- Owner, agreed response time and status
- The correction taken, the cause and any measures
- Date of feedback and closure
Assessing: how serious is the complaint?
Decide within a day how heavy a complaint weighs, so the right people get started immediately. If it touches safety or the environment, or a fine or breach of contract looms, escalate straight to the manager or management. A small annoyance the owner can handle alone.
Then establish whether the complaint is justified. Look at the facts: order confirmation, work order, photos, planning. If the complaint is partly justified, say honestly which part. That keeps the conversation with the customer businesslike and credible.
Cause and measure: from fixing to preventing
First you restore the situation for the customer. That is the correction: make the delivery after all, improve the work, put an error right. Then you ask why it happened. Do not stop at the first explanation, but look for the cause in working method, planning, instruction or the chain.
Not every complaint needs a CAPA. Do it for a serious complaint, a repeat or a pattern. If the cause lies with a supplier or subcontractor, pass it on in your supplier evaluation. Record who carries out the measure and when you check that the complaint does not return.
Feedback to the customer, with an example reply
A good reply acknowledges the problem, says what you did, names what you will still do and gives a fixed point of contact. Avoid defensive language and complicated explanations. Only promise what you deliver and name a date instead of "as soon as possible".
"Dear [name], thank you for your message about the late delivery of [product]. We have recorded your complaint under number [number]. You are right: the agreed date was not met and you should have heard that from us sooner. The delivery is now scheduled for [date]. We are investigating why the planning was not updated and will let you know by [date] what we are changing. Feel free to call [colleague] on [phone number] if you need anything before then."
Common mistakes in complaint handling
Most complaint procedures fail not at receiving, but at everything that comes after: recording, investigating and giving feedback. That rarely goes wrong out of ill will, but because nobody is the owner. If you recognise one of these points, it pays to sharpen your approach.
- Not recording a complaint because it was solved by phone
- Solving the problem only for this customer and leaving the cause
- Leaving the customer in silence after the first acknowledgement
- Closing complaints without asking whether the customer is happy with the solution
- Never analysing complaints for patterns
Learning from complaints: look at the pattern
One complaint is an incident, ten similar complaints are a signal. Group your complaints by type, such as delivery, quality, communication or safety on site, and look each quarter at what stands out. Also look at lead time: how long did it take before the customer got an answer?
Include the outcomes in the management review and show which improvements followed. That is also a good story for customers themselves: "you said this, we did that." That shows that a complaint sets something in motion with you, and that builds trust.
How BrydgeOne supports this
With Quality reports you record deviations and complaints in a structured way. You follow up the measures in Actions. In Satisfaction you survey and analyse customer satisfaction, and Supplier management helps you evaluate and monitor suppliers when the cause of a complaint lies there.
© 2026 BrydgeOne. General information, not legal or other professional advice. No rights can be derived from this article.