Best Practices Template

Customer complaint resolution — first contact best practices

Topic
Customer Service
Department
Customer Operations
Author
MCMarie Claessens
Status
Approved

🎯 Context

First-contact resolution (FCR) is the strongest predictor of customer satisfaction in our support operation. When agents resolve a complaint during the initial interaction — without transfers, callbacks, or follow-up emails — satisfaction scores average 87%. When the complaint requires a second contact, scores drop to 62%. This document captures the proven approach our top-performing agents use to maximise first-contact resolution for complaints involving order errors, delivery delays, and billing disputes.

📝 Recommended approach

1. Acknowledge before diagnosing

Open with a direct acknowledgement of the issue: "I can see that your order arrived later than expected — I understand how frustrating that is." This reduces defensive behaviour and shortens the call. Do not ask the customer to repeat information already visible in the CRM.

2. Own the resolution path

Tell the customer exactly what you will do and by when: "I am issuing a replacement now — you will receive a tracking number within 2 hours." Agents who state the next step within the first 90 seconds of the call resolve 23% more complaints at first contact than those who defer to a supervisor.

3. Confirm and close cleanly

Before ending the interaction, summarise what was agreed: "To confirm — I have issued a replacement order (ref. 4821903), and you will receive the tracking email by 14:00 today." Ask if there is anything else. Log the resolution code and any process feedback in the CRM.

⚠️ Common pitfalls

  • Asking "Can you tell me what happened?" when the issue is already in the CRM — the customer feels unheard and the call lengthens by an average of 2.5 minutes.
  • Escalating to a supervisor for standard resolutions (refund under €100, replacement shipment) — agents have authority to resolve these directly per SOP-CS-014.
  • Ending without a clear next step — vague closings ("someone will get back to you") generate 40% of repeat contacts on the same
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Document the proven methods, expert techniques, and hard-won lessons your organisation has developed over time. This template captures the context, recommended approach, common pitfalls, and supporting evidence — so expertise lives in a shared system, not in one person’s head.

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What is a best practices document?

A best practices document is a structured record of a proven method, technique, or approach that consistently delivers good results in a specific context. It captures not just the steps but the reasoning, evidence, and pitfalls — so teams can replicate success without relying on tribal knowledge.

Best practices sit between formal procedures and informal tips. A procedure defines the mandatory steps for a regulated process; a best practice recommends the optimal approach where professional judgement applies. They are most valuable in knowledge-intensive organisations where experienced staff have developed effective methods over years — methods that new hires cannot discover on their own.

Without documented best practices, expertise stays locked inside individuals. When those people change roles or leave, the organisation loses institutional knowledge it spent years building.

Who should use this template?

This best practices template is for teams responsible for capturing and sharing organisational expertise:

  • Knowledge Managers — build a structured library of proven methods that feeds both human reference and AI retrieval
  • Heads of Operations — standardise recommended approaches across sites so quality stays consistent
  • Team Leads — document what experienced staff do differently so new team members ramp up faster
  • Subject-Matter Experts — share hard-won lessons in a format that outlasts any individual role

What’s included in this template?

The template has two parts: structured metadata fields and narrative sections.

Metadata fields set the context:

  • Topic or process area (e.g. customer onboarding, code review, safety inspection)
  • Department or team
  • Author — the subject-matter expert who documented the practice
  • Last reviewed date
  • Status (draft, approved, under review)

Narrative sections capture the practice in full:

  • Context — what situation this practice applies to and why it matters
  • Recommended approach — the proven steps or method, with rationale for each
  • Common pitfalls — mistakes to avoid, with explanations of why they fail
  • Supporting evidence — data, metrics, or examples that validate the approach
  • Related resources — links to SOPs, training materials, or reference documents

How to create and customise this template in Elium

  1. Open the Template Builder — Go to your profile menu and select the Template Builder tab, or click “+ Create” and choose “Create a new template”.
  2. Set the scope — Choose an icon, enable the template, and decide whether it applies platform-wide or to specific spaces (e.g. your Knowledge Hub space only).
  3. Add structured fields — Click “Field” to add metadata: a tag field for topic area (pre-populate with common categories), a tag field for department, a user field for author, a date field for last reviewed, and a tag field for status. Mark topic and author as mandatory.
  4. Build the body structure — Use the “+” button to add content blocks for each narrative section: context (text block), recommended approach (numbered list block), common pitfalls (bulleted list block), supporting evidence (text block), and related resources (text block with links).
  5. Preview and save — Review the template layout, then save. Team members can now select it when creating new articles, and you can apply it to existing content in bulk.

How AI helps you create and use this template

Capture faster. When a subject-matter expert describes their approach in rough notes or a recorded walkthrough, Elium’s AI structures it into a best practices document — context, recommended steps, pitfalls — that the expert reviews rather than writing from scratch.

Retrieve smarter. Once best practices are published, any team member can ask a specific question: “What is the recommended approach for handling a customer complaint at first contact?” The AI returns the documented method with rationale and pitfalls — your organisation’s proven answer, not a generic guide.

Why teams use Elium for best practices

Best practices documentation is only valuable when people find it at the moment they need guidance. A document buried in a shared drive helps no one when a decision must be made now. Elium makes best practices actionable: structured templates keep the format consistent, AI-powered search surfaces the right guidance from a natural question, and review dates flag when a practice needs updating.

VINCI Energies — 97,000 employees across 61 countries — centralised operational knowledge in Elium after years of documentation scattered across Word, SharePoint, and Teams. The result: 4,000+ articles maintained by 500+ daily users, with structured governance ensuring content stays current as methods evolve.

Frequently asked questions

A best practices document records a proven method that consistently works in a specific situation. Without documented practices, expertise depends on individual memory and informal habits. When experienced staff leave, the organisation loses proven approaches it took years to develop. Documented best practices make that knowledge permanent and shareable.
A complete best practices template includes metadata (topic, author, department, review date, status) and narrative sections covering context, the recommended approach with rationale, common pitfalls, supporting evidence, and links to related resources. The best templates explain why the approach works, not just what to do.
Documented best practices reduce inconsistency by giving every team member access to proven methods. They shorten onboarding because new staff learn from expert knowledge rather than trial and error. Over time, a library of practices reveals which approaches deliver the best results — and which need updating as conditions change.
Start with the specific situation where this practice applies — not a generic statement. Describe the recommended approach step by step, explaining the rationale behind each decision. List common pitfalls with enough detail for the reader to recognise and avoid them. Include supporting data and set a review date.
A best practice recommends the optimal approach where professional judgement applies — it guides decisions rather than dictating steps. A standard operating procedure defines mandatory steps for a regulated or repeatable process. Best practices evolve as teams discover better methods; SOPs change only through formal review and approval.

Related reading: Read more on our blog