Advice on how to deal with complaints is now available from the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) as part of its Code of Conduct scheme.

It recommends members to devise and adopt a complaints procedure, and has published a compliance guide highlighting steps it believes are necessary for that procedure to succeed.

Effective complaints procedures should be an integral part of customer care according to the BWF which said members should show they have an established and clearly understood process in order to comply with the federation’s code of conduct. The BWF also recommends that the complaints procedure should be documented.

The five key elements of the guide are: a statement of commitment to satisfy customers; a statement of willingness to resolve problems; named individuals or a department responsible for dealing with complaints and queries; a summary of the process which will be followed in examining a complaint; an indication of the timescale within which it will be undertaken.

BWF director Richard Lambert said: “Members often say that responding to complaints punctually gives them the opportunity to show their customers just how highly they regard customer satisfaction. The one follows naturally from the other as far as they are concerned.

“This is another indication of the BWF’s positive attitude to the Code of Conduct, whereby we concentrate on helping members to comply rather than demanding compliance backed up by the threat of penalties for non-compliance.”