Resolving complaints is part of the day-to-day work of good customer service. But from our perspective, that is where the real work begins. Every complaint can provide valuable insight into where a customer journey is not working as it should.
Companies invest heavily in improving their customer experience. Processes are digitalised, self-service solutions are expanded, customer journeys are analysed, and individual touchpoints are optimised.
At the same time, one of the most valuable sources of insight is often already available: the real experiences of customers when something does not work.
The key question, therefore, is not only:
How can we resolve a complaint effectively?
But also:
What can we learn from it – and how can we ensure that the underlying cause does not lead to the same complaint again?
The complaint is rarely the actual problem
A customer contacts the company because an invoice is difficult to understand. Another cannot find the right solution in self-service. A third has to explain the same issue several times because information is lost between channels or departments.
From an operational perspective, these are individual cases.
From a Customer Experience Management perspective, however, they may be symptoms of structural weaknesses.
Perhaps a process is unnecessarily complicated. Perhaps important information is missing at a critical touchpoint. Responsibilities may not be clearly defined. Or the customer journey may have been designed primarily from an internal process perspective rather than consistently from the customer’s point of view.
That is why we believe complaints should not be viewed in isolation. Instead, we need to look for patterns:
- Where do similar problems occur repeatedly?
- At which touchpoints do complaints occur most frequently?
- What are the underlying causes?
- Which of these causes can we eliminate systematically?
Turning complaint data into actionable insights
Many companies already have access to large volumes of customer feedback. Complaints are documented in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, ticketing systems and other applications.
But data alone does not improve the customer experience.
What matters is our ability to identify patterns across individual cases and connect them to the customer journey.
Instead of simply stating:
“We received 150 complaints about this issue.”
we should be able to derive an insight such as:
“At this point in the customer journey, there is a recurring gap between customer expectations and the actual experience, resulting in dissatisfaction and avoidable customer contacts.”
This changes the perspective.
The discussion is no longer limited to how efficiently customer service handles complaints. It becomes a question of what those complaints tell us about processes, touchpoints and the overall customer experience.
Insights alone do not change the customer journey
Identifying a pattern is only the first step.
In practice, we often see another challenge: the problem is known, but responsibility for eliminating its root cause is unclear.
Customer service sees the complaints.
A specialist department owns the process.
IT operates the systems.
Marketing or Sales may be responsible for parts of the communication.
And Customer Experience Management tries to bring the customer’s perspective together across these organisational boundaries.
This is precisely where CX Governance becomes essential.
CX Governance: Who takes responsibility?
In our view, companies need a structured and binding cycle that connects customer feedback, analysis and actual change.
This means answering questions such as:
- How are insights from complaints and other customer feedback consolidated?
- How are relevant customer journey pain points assessed and prioritised?
- Who takes responsibility for improvements?
- How is implementation tracked?
- And how do we determine whether the customer experience has actually improved?
Without clear responsibilities, there is a risk that valuable insights remain exactly where they originated: in customer service.
Complaint Management and Customer Experience Management should therefore not be treated as separate disciplines.
Complaints as an early warning system for Customer Experience
Used effectively, complaints can be much more than an operational performance indicator.
They can become an early warning system for Customer Experience.
Complaints provide very concrete evidence of where customer expectations and operational reality diverge. They reveal which problems matter enough for customers to invest their time and effort in contacting a company.
This is precisely what makes complaints so valuable for the continuous improvement of customer journeys.
It requires a fundamental shift in perspective:
Closing a ticket as quickly as possible should not be the only objective.
The objective should also be to learn from recurring problems and eliminate their underlying causes.
Or, put simply:
Resolving a complaint helps one customer. Turning that insight into an improvement helps many.
O’Donovan at the 25th Customer Experience Week
The connection between Complaint Management and the Customer Journey is also the focus of our contribution to the 25th Customer Experience Week, initiated by the I-CEM Institute for Customer Experience Management.
Our Executive Board Member Matias Musmacher will speak on:
“Resolving Complaints Is Not Enough: From Individual Cases to a Better Customer Journey”
The session will explore how companies can systematically learn from individual complaints – from identifying recurring patterns and breaks in the customer journey to prioritising issues and implementing concrete improvements supported by clear CX Governance.
Wednesday, 23 September | 3:00 p.m.
Participation is free of charge.
Further information and registration:
https://www.i-cem.de/beschwerden-loesen-reicht-nicht-vom-fall-zur-besseren-customer-journey
We look forward to the 25th Customer Experience Week and to an engaging exchange of ideas.
How effectively does your organisation already turn insights from individual complaints into systematic improvements to the customer journey?
