Complaints and Returns Management (SAP Library - Complaints and Returns Management)

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 transaction (copying control). You can also create complaints without reference to a preceding transaction.

○ You can create references to documents from existing complaint transactions. You can reference business transactions in CRM, billing documents, or transactions 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 complaint item. The system determines assured response times based on the Service Level Agreements (SLA) defined in the contract. The times determined by the system enable you to monitor and promptly escalate overdue complaints.

● Defect tracking: You can use categorization to define your own catalogs with damage codes and reasons. You can access these catalogs from the complaints transaction. Predefined damage codes make it easier for you to enter complaints, while giving you an option for evaluating products, customers, and reasons for complaints in an attempt to prevent 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

You can implement this business scenario with different releases of the relevant application components. However, only certain combinations are valid. For more information, see:

● SAP CRM Master Guide on SAP Service Marketplace at service.sap.com/crm-inst

● Scenario & Process Component List on SAP Service Marketplace at service.sap.com/scl

Process Flow

...

1. The customer calls the service organization to complain about a service that was completed, or a product that was 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. SAP CRM saves the product that is the object of the complaint and the reason for the complaint, which you select in categorization, as well as the follow-up actions such as credit memo, substitute delivery, or returns request. This makes it easy for you to identify the weak spots during the subsequent service analysis, and take appropriate steps to remedy them.

5. To measure customer satisfaction after the complaint is processed, you can call customers to ask about their level of satisfaction. You record their answers in the system.

The business processes run as follows:

...

1. Complaints Processing in CRM

2. Outbound Processing with WM

3. Inbound Processing and Receipt Confirmation with WM

4. Credit Memo Processing in CRM

5. Billing in CRM

6. Complaints and Returns Analysis in CRM