Complaints and Returns Management 
Purpose
You can use this business scenario to process customer complaints within your sales and service organizations. A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction that a customer makes in relation to a service or product. If a customer returns a product without first making a complaint, this is a return.
You can use complaints management in your company to represent the entire complaints process from recording a complaint, the technical analysis and relevant follow-up process steps, through to the statistical evaluation.
The following complaints management components ensure efficient processing:
● Complaints processing:
○ You can create complaints with reference to a sales transaction or service process, service order, confirmation, service contract, in-house repair order, or CRM billing document. This simplifies the creation of complaints since all of the data, such as partners, products, quantities, and prices, is copied from the preceding document (copying control). You can also create complaints without reference to a preceding document.
○ You can also create references to documents in existing complaint documents. You can reference CRM business transaction or billing documents, or documents in integrated systems. Referencing is supported at header and item level.
○ An automatic warranty check informs you whether a warranty exists. You can use the warranty information to decide what action should be taken in response to a complaint. If, for example, the warranty allows a refund in the case of a defective product, you can immediately create a credit memo.
○ You can use the status function to track complaints processing (status tracking).
● Logistics integration: You monitor and track products that are returned, or replacement products that are delivered.
● Escalation management: You can assign a valid service contract to each complaints item. The system determines assured response times based on the Service Level Agreements (SLA) defined in the contract. The times determined by the system allow you to monitor and escalate overdue complaints in a timely manner.
● Defect tracking: You can define your own catalogs with damage codes and reasons. You can access these catalogs from the complaint document. Predefined damage codes make it easier for you to enter complaints, while giving you an option for evaluating products, customers, and reasons for complaints with the aim of preventing further complaints by identifying the defect causes.
● Task management: You can plan, track and process tasks relating to complaints, such as assigning responsible employees.
Prerequisites
Business partner |
SAP application component |
Configuration |
Vendor/Provider |
SAP CRM 5.0 SAP BW 3.1 Content SAP ECC 6.0 SAP SCM 5.0 SAP NetWeaver 2004S |
Use SAP Solution Manager. |
Process Flow
...
1. The customer calls the service organization to complain about a service performed, or a product delivered.
2. You create a complaint. You enter the necessary data, such as the name of the customer, the object involved in the complaint, and the reason for the complaint, in the corresponding fields.
3. You take steps to satisfy the customer as quickly as possible. The complaints transaction offers you a wide range of options for action. For example, you can authorize a credit memo for the customer, trigger the return delivery of a product and the simultaneous provision of a replacement, or ensure that a service representative deals with the problem.
4. If a warranty is in effect, you create a warranty claim for the complaint.
5. SAP CRM saves both the complaint subject and the reason for complaint, which you usually select from a predefined catalog. It also saves actions, such as credit memos, substitute deliveries, or returns requests. You can then identify weak points during a subsequent service analysis and take suitable measures to eliminate them.
6. To measure customer satisfaction following the processing of the complaint, you can call customers to ask about their level of satisfaction. You save the responses in the system.
The business processes are run in the following order:
...
1. Complaints Processing in CRM
2. Outbound Processing with WM
3. Inbound Processing and Receipt Confirmation with WM
4. Credit Memo Processing in CRM
6. Warranty Claim Processing in CRM
7. Complaints and Returns Analysis in CRM
See also:
Within the context of the following business scenarios, complaints in SAP CRM can be processed using the following channels of communication:
In the Interaction
Center WinClient and Interaction Center WebClient, in the 
IC Service
business scenario
In E-Service, in
the Complaints
and Returns Management in CRM E-Commerce business scenario
In Mobile Service,
in the Field
Complaints Management with CRM Mobile Service business scenario
On mobile clients
for handheld devices, in the Field Complaints
Management with Mobile Service for Handheld business scenario
● In internal Portal roles