I have To strongly agree with Mark from Surefish and Noel from NZ.
Customer complaint are a sign that all is not well in some aspect of
your business and you would be very very foolhardy to ignore the
customer. There are many tricks you can use to double check that the
customer is telling the truth and these are all part of managing the
continual improvement in your business.
I used to be a QA Manager for a processing arm of Australia's largest
supermarket chain, and they taught me that the customer is always right
even when they are wrong. Without the customer complaints and returned
products I would never had got any improvements happening anywhere
(processing, raw materials purchase, storage, distribution, marketing,
retail sector, staff training, individual supermarket buying practices
were all improved because of complaints and returned product).
I actually always requested the product be returned so that I could
examine the product myself for the real cause of the problem not the
perceived problem ie not "product went off" but "product grew micro's
caused by a drop in pH because product processed with incorrect
ingredients" or " product had the wrong colour because the product was
processed incorrectly because staff couldn't read labels". You can also
id foreign objects as not coming from your site but the householders or
retail outlet ie bits of Tupperware plastic, parts of metal scourers
ect....
If you don't get the product back you will never know the real cause of
the problem and therefore never be able to improve your business, it has
nothing to do with business protocol.
Clare Winkel
Food Consultant
Centre for Food Technology
The Agency for Food and Fibre Sciences
19 Hercules St
Hamilton Qld 4007
Australia
ph Aust/ 7/ 3406 8691
fax Aust/ 7/ 3406 8662
email clare.winkel@dpi.qld.gov.au
-----Original Message-----
From: Jose P. Peralta [mailto:jperalta@gaechuk.gsnu.ac.kr]
Sent: Wednesday, 5 February 2003 11:17
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Re: Seafood Returns
Dear Phil and list,
I work in QC before and somehow I learned certain business protocols.
I agree with Althaf, that once the product has been accepted, it should
not be
returned. As a matter of protocol, that is the way it should be done.
The
products have already been accepted.
But then again, relationship between suppliers and customers develop,
and this
protocol is somewhat bent to lean in favor of the customer. Returns are
sometimes tolerated.
Phil, you are not hard on your customer. You are simply applying good
business
protocol.
Br,
Jose
Althaf Khan wrote:
> Dear Phil,
> Very interesting comment you made on "Seafood Returns". Why stop at
retail
> level? How about wholesale customers and distributors? I think once
the
> product has been accepted by any customer (Customer namely: retailer,
> wholesaler, distributor, etc) should not be returned, simply due to
the fact
> that the supplier(producer, distributor, wholesaler, etc) have no
control
> over the product.
> Thank you,
> Althaf Khan
> Plant Manager
> River Seafoods, Inc.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil Houle" <philhoule@bozzutos.com>
> To: <seafood@ucdavis.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 2:23 PM
> Subject: Seafood Returns
>
> > Since joining the seafood group I have found the responses to
questions by
> > members of the group to be very helpful and informative. I'm looking
for
> > some guidance in whether to accept or reject seafood items as a
returned
> > item from a retail customer.
> >
> > Recently I have had a few meetings with our company's seafood buyers
and
> > customer service departments to affirm my position that no seafood
item,
> > fresh or frozen, is to be returned from any of our retail customers
once
> the
> > shipment has been accepted by the retailer and our truck driver has
left
> > their property. This has caused a few angry customers. Sometimes the
> reason
> > for the requested return of product is due to the wrong item
delivered.
> > Other times it was the retailer that ordered the wrong item or order
too
> > much. The reasons are many but my stance has been that once the
retail
> > customer accepts the shipment and our driver has left their property
to
> > return to our warehouse we cannot accept any seafood product to be
> returned.
> > I view the retailer as a supplier to us once custody of product
control
> has
> > taken place and therefore would require them to have a Seafood HACCP
> > Program.
> >
> > Am I too hard nosed with this issue? You response would be very much
> > appreciated.
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> >
> > Phil Houle
> > HACCP Manager
> >
--Jose P. Peralta. Ph. D. Visiting Professor in Food Science Major Div. of Marine Bioscience, College of Marine Science Gyeongsang National University 445, Inpyeong-dong, Tongyeong 650-160, KOREA Tel (82 55) 640 3004
"What could not be achieved individually could always be achieved collectively"
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