Ways & Means of Consumer Complaint Escalation

Getting Started with Escalation Process for Customer Issues

• Are you vexed of calling the customer service agents again and again with your problem going nowhere?
• What to do if your complaint with a service center goes unresolved?

I am sure many of us passed though these situations where they decide to proceed no further after making a few attempts to stop wasting their valuable time. I think you too are suggested by many of your friends and colleagues who have faced the similar experiences to leave that issue and move on. Many a times you too would have left these kinds of issues unsettled not to waste your time more.

But this time you are stubborn enough to search online to get your issue resolved. That is the reason why you are reading this article. I assure you that this piece can be extremely helpful because I faced many of those issues too and always managed to get my complaints rectified by adopting the following guidelines which I penned down here, considering the experiences of few acquaintances and an expansive online research. By the end of reading this article you will be able to get a clear outlook of how to proceed further if you don’t get proper service by your service providers.

Few Things worth Trying before Complaining

• Don’t approach the court straight away after getting a poor service. This may cost you more time. Approach the company first and make them hear your concerns.

• There are few processes you can follow before complaining. Follow through the company rules and procedures patiently. This will you give you an edge in the consumer court.

• For example in telecom sector, once you if don’t get proper service at executive level, you can reach to nodal and then appellate officers.

There are certain suggested procedures to be undergone before we can opt for lodging a complaint. They can be used as evidence for improper customer treatment.

For now let’s move into further details before getting to know how to approach the Consumer court.

First Approach:

• First thing to do if you have a complaint is to call/mail the Customer Service. Please note that the service teams are going to solve your problems only if you start complaining your disputes with them.
• I ordered a book online by paying in advance but they failed to deliver me due to some technical reasons. When I contacted they provided me the cash back along with 50% discount coupon and a 2 day faster delivery option for me to order again and on re-ordering, I got my book in 2 days as assured. If I had not made a call, I wouldn’t have got those compensation coupons. So, always make sure you convey your concerns to the customer service executive first.
• Keep in mind that all the customer service representatives are employed to provide better service to their consumers.
• Don’t delay or neglect your difficulty faced with them even if it’s a minor one. It only takes a couple of minutes to find their website and send your concern.
  

  Communicating with Service Executives:

  Most of the times your request goes unverified due to inefficient conversation with the service executive. So it is always necessary to describe your query/issue in a clear and understanding manner. It is extremely important to convey your concern explicitly to get your problem solved with the service agent itself.

  Express Your Concern Clearly with all Details:

  • If you don’t get your issue solved force them to do so by calling them few more times and mentioning your issues more accurately and elaborately.
  • Be careful not to sound rude to service executives. Your voice has to be harsh enough without losing the politeness to make your intentions clear and urge them to react by conveying your concern more effectively.
  • Each time you call, make note of the executive’s name, time and date of your call. If you ask to be connected to a supervisor and you are not connected, hang up and call back in. Then immediately ask to speak to a supervisor mentioning the details of your previous calls

  You can escalate your complaint to higher authorities if your issue doesn’t get solved at service executive level.

Officials Who Can Help You:

• If the customer care service executive does not solve your problem, write to their Nodal Officer. You can contact your nodal officer with your compliant number. The function of a nodal officer is to monitor the usage of company’s website by all of their officers.
• If nodal officer fails to settle the issue, write to the Appellate Authority. Your appeal must be submitted through the duly completed Appeal Form. To download the form visit company website or visit the nearest office of the company.

How to find Higher Authorities?

• You can contact the nodal/appellate officer by finding their names and contact in the company’s website. The approach can be through mail, call, or in person.
• The complaint to the appellate officer has to be submitted within the enclosure period after your complaint got registered. This period changes from one company to other. Check these details too in the company website.
• Make sure while going up in the hierarchy of contacting these representatives you mention the things unresolved by the previous ones below them.

Taking Escalation to the Highest Level:

Before complaining to the consumer court you can do a few more things listed below, which will make the service provider to solve your issue immediately. These can be applicable for all established service centers.

Make best use of Forums and Feedback section:

• Most common customer service problems are identified by the company and solutions for those are mentioned in the FAQs Go through those lists and check for any possible solution available there.

• Use the forums and feedback options of company’s website as an opportunity to express your dissatisfaction over your complaint status. Many companies maintain a standard crew to check their customer feedback. They do this to improve their services. So, your feedback can be very useful both for you in solving your issue and them in getting progress in their services.

• You can find a contact us option on every website, use this to reach them and narrate your problem clearly and ask for a call back from manager if you don’t get your problem solved in your first 2 or 3 calls made to the service executives. Always write a valid and ethical content in your mail as they come under scrutiny if you file a complaint in future.

Using Social Media as tool:

• Post your issues in the accounts of service provider’s social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and any other. Do specify all your query details in your posts.

• This ensures them that you have tried contacting them and not satisfied with their services. It also makes them realize that you are not going to give up until your problem gets solved completely.

• These actions alert the service provider to solve your issue as early as possible because no organization wants demeaning posts and a negative campaigning by their own customers which results in loss of its previous customer and few others.

Media can be handy:

Raise hue and cry on media. If possible write letters to newspapers and media describing your consequences faced with a particular organization. Every company is wary of its image, this can have serious affect on the company.

Complaining to Consumer Court:

If all of your above actions go in vain then you can ultimately opt for complaining to the Consumer court. To know how to proceed further, read the article on How to File a Complaint in the Consumer Court?