Is Your Company Prepared? A Checklist For Responding To Consumer Safety Complaints

When a consumer safety complaint arises, having the right procedures in place can make all the difference in minimizing legal and regulatory exposure. This cross-functional checklist is designed to help legal, compliance, engineering, manufacturing, customer service, and marketing teams stay aligned, act decisively, and respond with confidence when a potential product safety issue emerges.

Consumer Safety Complaint Checklist

DO

• Have a centralized reporting structure for all consumer complaints and a dedicated team to monitor all incoming complaints so that customer service, legal, engineering, marketing, and risk management have regular visibility.
• Have clear instructions on how complaint information is recorded, what is recorded, and criteria for escalation of complaints or trends.
• Immediately alert the appropriate regulatory, compliance, and legal personnel as designated by company policy.
• Immediately determine any applicable reporting obligations under the Consumer Product Safety Act or other applicable statutes and regulations.
• Collect, review, and assess any customer service, marketing, engineering, quality, warranty, supply chain, or other relevant records; and preserve materials which may be considered evidence.
• Conduct outreach to the team responsible for designing the product at issue to determine whether safety issues were anticipated in the design process.
• Confirm that the product has been tested, classified, and labeled properly in observance of all applicable regulations and industry best practices.
• Consult with legal counsel about whether a stop sale or similar measure should be taken.
• Have counsel determine whether it is necessary to communicate the issue to supply chain partners.

DO NOT

• Do not ignore or bury the complaint and/or potential issue and hope that it goes away.
• Do not omit key facts from customer communications when retaining complaint information.
• Do not silo customer complaints.
• Do not accept liability for any incidents involving your product before a thorough investigation can be conducted.
• Do not consent to a search of any facilities or seizure of any materials unless instructed by a signed warrant.
• Do not deploy public relations or other external messaging in response to a product issue before legal counsel is involved and overseeing all communications.

Time is of the essence when dealing with consumer safety complaints. Taking immediate action helps significantly minimize liability to both consumers and the government. Be sure to train and prepare the appropriate personnel to be ready to hit the ground running if a consumer safety complaint is received.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.