Dispute avoidance. Those two words underpin the getclosure! approach. A dispute arises when two parties are unable to resolve their differences. In our business, the two parties are a consumer and a supplier. And a dispute arises when the supplier is unable to resolve a complaint to the consumer’s satisfaction.

getclosure! is in the business of helping suppliers to avoid disputes by addressing their consumers’ complaints. We do this by making it really easy for consumers to complain and equally easy for suppliers to receive and respond to complaints. And it works – feedback indicates that almost 70% of consumers using our service are satisfied or better with the outcome of their complaint. Research tells us that when a supplier deals quickly and appropriately with a consumer’s complaint, the chances of retaining that consumer as a customer are better than 90%. So it should come as no surprise that more than 400 South African suppliers already make active use of getclosure! to address their customer’s complaints.

But what happens when a supplier does not respond at all or is unable to resolve the complaint to the consumer’s satisfaction? In those cases, getclosure! tries hard to identify the options available to the consumer. Listed on the getclosure! website are more than 200 organisations and services that may be able to assist consumers. We call them remedy providers and classify them as facilitators, champions or enforcers. All of them are making a contribution to the improvement of service standards in South Africa and getclosure! will do what we can to make them as effective as possible.

Ian is one of the people who dreamed up getclosure! He has a background in dispute resolution and financial services. Click here to read more Ian and other members of the getclosure! team.