Customer Complaints
Why are customer
complaints important?
There are a number of reasons why taking notice of customer
complaints can be important:
1. They are a good way of monitoring the quality of food you
produce.
2. They help in assessing the quality of your suppliers.
3. By acting on complaints you can stop mistakes being repeated
in future. It takes a long time to build up a good reputation,
it’s a lot quicker to get a bad one!
4. The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations
1995 require proprietors of food businesses to identify
potential food hazards, decide which of these hazards need to
be controlled to ensure food safety and then put into place
effective control and monitoring procedures to prevent the
hazards causing harm to consumers. A system to monitor
complaints will help to identify hazards which you will then
be able to control in future.
Why record customer
complaints?
It clearly demonstrates that measures are in place to monitor
your food safety hazard system even though written records
are not necessarily a legal requirement.
What type of complaint
should I record?
It is suggested you log all complaints relating to food you have
sold, in particular, those involving:
•
Physical contamination - hair, glass, metal etc.
•
Chemical contamination - cleaning materials, pesticides etc.
•
Bacterial contamination - food poisoning, souring etc.
• Food sold outside of it’s date code.
You may also decide to log complaints relating to customer
service or the premises themselves - don’t be afraid to learn
from how others see your service.
complaint2 rev1
Customer
Complaints
How to complete the
customer complaint records
Please see
b
elow and
follow the
easy to
use step
by step
guide.
Step 1
Each time a complaint is received the record sheet should be fully completed.
↓
Step 2
First, record the complaint details. The name and address of the complainant
may become important at a later date so make sure you note them down
whenever possible.
↓
Step 3
The “Nature of complaint” box should be used to record the reason for the
complaint.
↓
Step 4
Next write down the food details. If you have not produced the food yourself
note information given on the packaging, including any names and addresses,
sell-by or best before dates and any manufacturer codes.
↓
Step 5
Note what action was taken as a result of the complaint.
↓
Step 6
Regularly review the complaint records to see if there are any recurring
themes. Examples could include several complaints about foods you receive
from a particular supplier or cooked by a particular chef.
complaint4 rev1
Customer Complaint Record
Complaint details
Nature of complaint
(reason for
dissatisfaction)
Product details
(packaging, date codes, manufacturer
etc.)
Action taken
Date
5/5/96
Time
12.25p.m.
Meal cold Sausage , chips and peas Replacement meal given.
Complainants
name
Miss Take
Checked hot holding cabinet - not
working correctly.
Complainants
address
Not given
Engineer called, repaired on 6/5/96.
Received by
PRT
Date
31/5/96
Time
9.45 am
Used plaster in Manufacturer - Simon Pies Ltd Meal replaced.
Complainants
name
Miss D. Meaner
meat and potato pie
Date Code 1-6-96
Packaging Code 11-45-ALS-96
Contacted supplier. Not first
complaint he has
Complainants
address
2, Somewhere St
Fleetwood
Baked into pie filling. Delivered by Simon’s Pies on 30/5/96.
received.
Cancelled order and new supplier
contacted.
Received by
PRT
Date
10/6/96
Time
2.30 pm
Mr Jones claims he’s Mr Jones ate chicken and chips at about
12.15 on 8/6/96. Mrs Jones
Notified RBK&C Environmental
Health Dept.
Complainants
name
Sam & Ella Jones
suffering from food
poisoning. Had
had cheese salad and has been OK.
They arranged to
have Mr Jones tested and
Complainants
address
1, Agar Avenue,
diarrhoea, vomiting,
fever yesterday.
confirmed it was not food
poisoning. Phew!
Received by
DRF
