Title: Complaints management: quality of response to customer complaints in an automotive company

Authors: António Rocha; Ana Pedregal; Catarina Maia; Gabriel Soares; Hugo Cardoso; Marta Fonseca

Addresses: 2Ai – Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal ' School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal ' School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal ' School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal ' School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal ' School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal

Abstract: Complaints management is an essential process of customer service by providing valuable information to review organisational performance and to support decision-making, holding accountable different stakeholders, including suppliers of product parts and services. The automotive industry requires high-quality standards and internal compliance procedures to assure the reliability of manufacturing processes and quality of product parts, even though with these stringent measures complaints are issued, and they must be promptly handled and solved. This article analysis the processing time of customer complaints, to figure out, the causes leading an automotive industrial unit to not comply with internal and customer response time targets, proposing improvements to minimise the cost of contractual fines. To accomplish these outcomes a top-bottom approach was used, detailing critical factors to describe and analyse the complaints handling process and to identify the underlying problems to advance improvement opportunities that can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the complaints management system.

Keywords: complaints assessment; 8D process; continuous improvement; quality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2025.143968

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2025 Vol.44 No.1, pp.18 - 39

Received: 09 Jan 2023
Accepted: 04 Feb 2023
Published online: 16 Jan 2025 *