Product Incident Departmental Roles and Responsibilities

Departmental Roles: Product Incident Reporting and Actions

Customer Service Department

• Reassure the caller
  • Acknowledge the (customer, parent, etc.) emotions and reassure customer that Kaplan Early Learning Company will investigate the matter immediately.
  • Inform the customer that our Quality Assurance Department will review the situation.
  • Set expectations about next steps and the objective to expedite review while gathering facts.
• Gather data from the customer
  • Product-related injury details: what happened, how it occurred, when and where.
  • Responsible adult present at the time of incident.
  • Product-related information (model, lot, serial if applicable).
• Request images of the product involved
  • Obtain clear photos showing the product, any damage, packaging, and the environment where the incident occurred (if appropriate).
• Complete and forward the incident report form to Quality Assurance (QA)
  • Ensure all required fields are populated and attach any customer-provided evidence.

Safety and Compliance – Brenda Smith

• Review incident report
  • Assess completeness and accuracy, flag missing data for follow-up.
• Gather product data
  • Collect relevant product specifications, batch/lot numbers, and manufacturing details.
• Review purchased date from Kaplan
  • Verify purchase date and related purchase records as applicable.
• Compliance testing and validation
  • Confirm appropriate age rating for the product.
  • Verify that the tested age matches Kaplan’s published recommended age.
• Returns/history data review
  • Review returns history data for related items or similar incidents.
• On-hand product inspection (if needed)
  • Inspect any available on-hand stock to identify potential product issues (damage, wear, changes from original condition).
• Image review
  • Evaluate images for evidence of damage, wear, or alteration that could have contributed to the incident.
• Draft follow-up communication to the customer
  • Prepare a compassionate, clear update confirming product compliance status or actions taken.
• Returns/history data review
  • Waylon – pull and review returns history data for related items or similar incidents.
• On-hand product inspection (if needed)
  • Inspect any available on-hand stock to identify potential product issues (damage, wear, changes from original condition).
• Image review
  • Evaluate images for evidence of damage, wear, or alteration that could have contributed to the incident.

Quality Assurance Department – Seth Wash

• Returns/history data review
  • Seth – pull and review returns history data for related items or similar incidents.
• On-hand product inspection (if needed)
  • Inspect any available on-hand stock to identify potential product issues (damage, wear, changes from original condition).
• Image review
  • Evaluate images for evidence of damage, wear, or alteration that could have contributed to the incident.

Merchandising Department – Jill Geyer

• QA coordination with Merchandising
  • Confirm the product’s age range as stated by merchandising.
  • Obtain any known product information that could impact incident assessment:
    • History or changes over time (design changes, component changes, material changes).
    • Change in vendor or supplier.
    • Change in product design or packaging.
• Provide product insights
  • Share any known issues reported for this product line and any remediation actions already taken.

Legal Department – Mark Kaplan

• Review and action accordingly

HubSpot/Forms – Ben Simon

• Manages Form & Department Alerts
  • Form Link: KELC | Product Incident Questionnaire
  • Upon submission, A HubSpot Ticket is generated in both Quality Control & Merchandising Pipelines.
  • Email is sent to Brenda Smith for every submission
  • If submission includes Off Site Care, a ticket is created for Mark Kaplan in Insurance Claims pipeline in addition to other tickets.