The International Organization for Standardization recently announced a new standard to help organizations satisfy dissatisfied customers.

ISO 10002 is a standardized complaints-handling process that can be easily integrated into established quality management systems—especially ISO 9001:2000, which requires top management to focus on customer satisfaction and continual improvement. It provides instructions on the delivery of a complaints-handling process that provides responsive treatment to unhappy customers, and focuses on problem areas for improvements and cost savings for organizations.

“At the same time, the standard is complete enough for stand-alone implementation, or in support of other quality management and customer satisfaction tools,” says Bill Dee, a member of the working group that developed ISO 10002. “The standard gives complete guidance—including principles, issues for consideration and structural aspects—for the management of the overall complaints-handling process, with numerous checklists, sample forms and practical examples.”

For more information, visit www.iso.org.