High-Priority Claims

Guidelines

• Do not repeat what the customer says/make any admissions. 

• If customers believe the company understands their concerns, and they are raising a legitimate issue, they are more likely to freely share information. They are also less likely to become chronic complainers that drains company resources. 

• Fill in all the Zendesk fields (as you gain more information) for accurate reporting, which is provided to other teams. 

• Safety-related claims: the general rule of thumb is to get the product back. (Return memo: CC – route the package to PTE for immediate inspection.)

• Suspected fraud: the general rule of thumb is to get the product back for further inspection.

• Escalate to legal immediately if reference to serious injury requiring hospitalization, death, or the potential for either, or complaint references regulatory agencies.

• If possible, request pictures of everything pertaining to the claim (product, damages, injuries, etc.).

Gather Information, properly categorize the issue, and route the complaint. (refer to Claim Intake Cheat Sheet)

Claim Intake Cheat Sheet

CSR should follow these steps when handling the initial interaction with a complaining consumer: 

• Gather as much information as possible about the product, the complaint, and the complainant during the initial contact. 

• Appease the complainant without accepting responsibility for the complaint. Do not repeat what the customer said and do not make any admissions. If the consumer believes that the company understands her concerns and recognizes she is raising a legitimate issue, she is more likely to share information freely. She is also less likely to become a chronic complainer that creates a drain on company resources. 

• Use the company's complaint handling script and initial intake documents, if any. 

• Properly categorize and route the complaint. After the initial intake is complete, categorize it according to its level of urgency and tag. Forward the intake information, consumer data, and product data to the proper department. 

Information to gather during initial contact: 

1. What happened? 

2. When did the incident occur?
   If the incident happened a while ago, have the customer contacted the company before? 

3. Where did the incident occur? 

4. Where is the customer located? Country, State, etc. 

5. How did the incident occur?
   How was the product being used?
   Who was using the product when the incident occurred? 

6. What product was involved? 

7. Was there any injury involved?
   Who suffered injury? What was the injury? Medical treatment? Current condition of injury. 

8. Was there any property damage involved?
   What was damaged? What is the damage? 

9. Product and purchase information 

10. Does the consumer still have the product?
    Inform the consumer not to dispose until instructed to do so. 

11. Contact information. 

Important Considerations: 

1. If it is a safety-related claim (i.e. fire, smoke, burn, melt, shock, cut, injury, etc.) the general rule of thumb is to get the product back.
   Please properly mark the label as “CC” (Corporate Counsel) so the package is routed to PTE for immediate inspection. 

2. If suspected fraud, the general rule of thumb is to get the product back for inspection.  

3. Escalate to Legal immediately if complaint references a serious injury requiring hospitalization, death, or the potential for either, or complaint references regulatory agencies. 

4. Get pictures if available. 

5. Be careful what you write in internal notes. Don’t just write “Fire” or “burned kitchen.” Again, these are customer allegations with no substantiation. You can start with “customer alleged…” Important to write exactly what the customer said, NOT your own conclusions or assumptions.