Delight customers with complaints

Complaints are part of everyday life in industry—including in the plastics sector. But instead of viewing them as a necessary evil, companies should see them as an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships. This is precisely where the new course “Complaint Handling in the Plastics Industry” from SKZ – Das Kunststoff-Zentrum comes in.

“Complaints are often unpleasant, but they offer an opportunity to demonstrate competence, reliability, and customer focus,” explains Christoph Kreutz, head of the Quality Management Training Center at SKZ and course instructor for the new format. "The so-called recency effect helps here: the last impression counts. Even if a complaint initially appears negative, professional handling can not only restore customer trust, but even strengthen it. This requires confident, solution-oriented, and empathetic action."

The course is aimed at employees in quality management, quality assurance, sales, purchasing, project management, and production—both experienced professionals and career changers. The goal is to teach a systematic and practical approach to complaint handling that is tailored to the specific requirements of plastics processing.

Course contents at a glance:
• Basics and definitions of complaint handling
• Requirements according to DIN EN ISO 9001 and IATF 16949
• Understanding error culture as an opportunity
• Tools for error detection and prevention
• Special features of plastics and typical error patterns
• Communication strategies in the event of complaints
• Step-by-step instructions for problem solving
• Practical group exercises for processing and customer communication

There’s a special focus on structured root cause analysis and long-term error prevention—all practical and application-oriented. The course promotes a cross-company error culture based on transparency, responsibility, and solution-oriented action.

“Many companies do not have an established complaint management system or fail due to a lack of communication – often resulting in finger-pointing. Our goal is to provide participants with all the tools they need to deal with complaints professionally and derive real improvements from them. Ultimately, handling complaints is a sign of quality,” emphasizes Kreutz.

Regular training dates planned
The SKZ is planning several regular training sessions in the future to provide targeted support to companies in the plastics industry and train employees in the professional handling of complaints. The new format is also suitable for in-house training directly at the companies.

Further information on dates and content can be found at:
Complaint handling in the plastics industry
The next event will take place from September 30 to October 1, 2025, in Würzburg.