Our customer complaint program aims to resolve all customer complaints as soon as possible to their and our satisfaction.
Customer complaints are classified as:
Food Safety
Warehouse Services
Mis-Delivery
Customers may submit their complaints to any member of the GWSI management staff. We will immediately notify the Food Safety Team if classified as a Food Safety complaint. The Food Safety Team and a Marketing Representative will address the initial complaint.
The Food Defense Coordinator (FDC) is responsible for monitoring the trend of Customer Complaints and the effectiveness of any corrective measures taken.
Complaints are received by the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Practitioner, classified, and then assigned to warehouse managers and administrative staff for investigation.
Determine if the complaint is valid as presented and thoroughly described.
Food safety complaints are handled expeditiously according to the established action plan.
Identify the product, SKU, lot number or batch, and date received.
Identify the source of the food safety issue that led to the complaint.
Determine if any other products are affected.
Take corrective action to eliminate the source of the food safety issue.
The supplier will determine the disposition of the product in the warehouse.
Warehouse Service Complaints encompass the storage conditions in the warehouse and inventory control.
Physical damage due to handling
Insect/rodent contamination. The Pest Control vendor, Ecolab, will be included in the risk assessment process.
Moisture damage
Inventory
Mis-delivery relates explicitly to the loading out of the incorrect product and/or quantity of the product loaded.
Gather all documentation related to the delivery.
Determine who prepared the pick ticket and who loaded out the product.
Is the source of the problem systemic or process-related, or caused by human error
Perform a risk assessment using the Risk Assessment Template.
Contributing factors
Operational processes involved
Risk Matrix – Risk impact to business
Existing safeguards
Additional safeguards recommended
Cost to develop, install, and operate each safeguard.
Effect of safeguards on risks
Economic feasibility of safeguards
Response to Customer
Acknowledge receipt of complaint.
Provide results of the initial investigation. If the complaint is invalid, provide supporting evidence to explain the true source of the problem.
Confirm the status and condition of the product in storage at GWSI.
Update inventory
Explain the risk assessment results and advise existing control measures and any new safeguards implemented to manage the problem.
Confirm the disposition of the product as per instruction from the supplier/customer.
Follow up
Review any new safeguards implemented to determine if they effectively prevent future incidents.
We will store Customer Complaint records on the Shared Drive, and when classified as Food Safety, the Food Defense Coordinator will also keep a copy.
Documentation
We will store a copy of the Customer Complaint-related documents on the Shared Drive in a project format. We will also keep records of the Corrective Actions and their statuses on the Shared Drive.