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First of all should not make hue n cry for the issues with the products. It's very tough to acknowledge the product issues once the product has been distributed, but the smart people manage it.
I can go by example which happened with me in 2010 when I was with LG taking care of Refrigerators as Product Manager.
In the production from Sep'10 till Jan'11 in LG Frost Free Refrigerator Category there was manufacturing defect in placing the valve due to this there was choking in all the units & resulted in low cooling or no cooling. We came to know the issue in Jan'11 when almost 100K refrigerators were distributed to the market & 70% were sold to the end users, it was very panic situation as trade was losing confidence in the brand for the Frost Free Category & it was very tough for the organization to recall all the units. So we have decided to touch each n every customer who has purchased the units manufactured during this period even if they have not noticed the issue, I have coordinated with my service teams & local trade partners to provide us with data for the needful. Than we sent our service engineers with a thanks note for choosing our product & accepted the fault if customer wants to get it repaired our engineers will rectify the same immediately & will offer them extended warranty or if customer denies than humbly we took back the product & let the decision on the customer whether he wants to buy some other product or wants a refund.
In this way we have rectified the issue without any hue n cry in the market & with maximum customer satisfaction & minimum lifting back the products to company.
we will follow HACCP,GMP,TQM,ISO
If a bad product is distributed on a small scale upto 1000 people then i would personally message via email or text messages and the bad product would be replaced if not replced according to terms and conditions then i would provide all the corrective measures to the customers and additional offers will be suggested according to customers suitability. if customer is apprehensive then full refund i would preffer, if replcing the product with the good one customers don't preffer.
I will initiate an offer sale for less price compared to other products in market with same catagory.
Immediately contact customer. Don't wait until customer finds out. Be proactive and be prepared to have a solution. Put yoursel in their shoes and look from their perspective.
It is not a herculien task if you are smart enough to handle such situation. Follow these steps immediately....
Be in touch with the client whom bad product has been distributed.
Aware him about the anomality/defect in that product.
Rectified that defect immediately by taking help of expert or replace the product with good one.
Keep on taking customer feed back even after replacing the good product.
Internally, the management should analyse and research the cause which translated into a bad product and take proper action to remove those error so that the repeat should not happen in future.
internal checking to find out how it's happen. apologize to the customers, assure they have a company guaranty.
Send an apology email and make arrangements for compensation.
Depending on the product in question and the lot. Regardless, it is a product issue that is defective and it has a huge impact on the business and the company.
First step is collect and gather all the data and request to issue a "Product Recall" which is usually mandatory from the origin or manufacturer and customers have the right to be informed of the matter immediately.
Collaborate with all concerned but carefully and discreetly communicate and handle the "recall" and usually a replacement (good one) should be arranged immediately.
Once the mistake of issuing a "bad product " to the market has been made. Efforts should be made to retrieve the faulty products from the customers and be replaced with a better products. The reputation of the company should not be toyed with in offering inferior products to the customers. Appology should be tended to the customers. And the quality assurance department will be encouraged that such issue do not happen again.
The bad product can be compensated for or given a discount as that would reduce the customers anger and disatisfaction.
