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Complaint Handling

Document Subject: Complaint Handling Document Classification: X Document Reference: FOHSOP000X No. of Pages in Document: 23 including cover page Document Author: X Document Owner: Front Office Owner Signature: X Authorised By: X Dated: dd/mm/yyyy Issue Status:

Version Date Summary of changes

V0001 dd/mm/yyyy New SOP Implementation

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Contents

Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3

Purpose ...................................................................................................................... 3

Scope ......................................................................................................................... 3

Locations .................................................................................................................... 3

Core Principal ............................................................................................................. 4

1. What is a complaint? .............................................................................................. 5

2. Recognising dissatisfaction .................................................................................... 6

3. Anonymous complaints .......................................................................................... 7

4. Acknowledging a complaint .................................................................................... 8

5. What to do when you receive a complaint .............................................................. 9

6. Instant Resolutions & Investigations..................................................................... 10

7. Complaint handling steps ..................................................................................... 12

8. Remedies for complaints ...................................................................................... 14

9. Timelines .............................................................................................................. 15

10. Where a complaint is handled off site ................................................................. 16

11. Closing a complaint ............................................................................................ 18

12. Recording complaints ......................................................................................... 19

13. Maintaining confidentiality .................................................................................. 21

14. Exceptions .......................................................................................................... 22

Declaration ............................................................................................................... 22

Training Record Log ................................................................................................. 23

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Introduction Customer satisfaction is very important to us and our focus should always be on getting it right first time. However, we recognise that sometimes things can go wrong and when they do, we need to act quickly and ensure that things are put right. Complaints give us valuable information which we can use to improve customer satisfaction and therefore should always be welcomed. This complaints handling procedure reflects (insert company name here)’s commitment to valuing complaints and feedback. Do remember, complaints often also provide a first-hand account of the customer's views and experience, and can highlight problems we may otherwise miss. Handled well, complaints can give our customers a form of remedy when things have gone wrong, restore their faith in us and our product as well as help us to continuously improve our services going forward. Resolving complaints early saves money and creates better relations. Sorting them out as close to the point of service delivery as possible means we can deal with them locally and quickly, so they are less likely to escalate. Complaints that we do not resolve swiftly can greatly add to our workload and damage brand reputation. Keeping the customer at the heart of the process, will enabling us to better understand how to improve our services by learning from complaints.

Purpose The purpose of this document is to:

Provide clear guidance on complaint handling

Acknowledge and deal with complaints before they escalate

Ensure we all follow the same procedure

Serve as a training guide

Scope All (insert company name here) employees

Locations All UK (insert company name here) locations

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Core Principal A complaint is a gift and an opportunity for us to make things right. Customers may complain in person, by phone, by email or in writing. Your focus, regardless of how the complaint was received, must be on rectifying the situation and restore customer satisfaction as quickly as possible. You must stay fair and impartial throughout the process. You must strike a fine balance between restoring customer satisfaction and confidence whilst keeping the best interest of the business in mind too. We ask that you always remain neutral and investigate the situation before coming to a conclusion. We are looking for evidence-based decisions. Bias can often hold us back in achieving the best possible outcome for everyone involved. Be aware of your own possible bias and make it your personal mantra not to form a judgement too early.

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1. What is a complaint? A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction or concern about a standard of service, actions or lack of action. The complaint may also relate to dissatisfaction with our policies, security enforcement procedures, treatment by or attitude of a member of staff or a general disagreement. We highly recommend that all team members review existing complaint logs and/or customer reviews to get a better understanding of your most common and site specific complaints.

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2. Recognising dissatisfaction It is important that you recognise dissatisfaction before things escalate. Being able to read a person’s body language can help you in identifying the urgency of someone’s complaint and how much it matters to them. Not being able to recognise visual cues can lead to a customer feeling misunderstood and possibly even ignored. Many of our customers may not necessary tell you about a problem. Instead, they often wait for us to notice that something isn’t right and expect us to act on it. If you don’t, they may chose silently to go away and possibly even move to a competitor. That is why it is critical for us to recognise when our customers are dissatisfied before they even have to tell us. There are five signs you must recognise

• Facial expressions such as upset or stressed

• Raised voice

• Request becomes more forceful

• Agitated hand gestures increase proportionately with the customer's level of being

upset

• Someone that is usually friendly and chatty becomes silent and no longer

interacts with us the way they used to after having complained

Treat every complaint with the utmost respect and a sense of urgency. Being too relaxed or calm may often come across as if you do not care or are not treating their comments seriously. Always remember how you might feel if you were in the same situation as the customer. As the saying goes “Treat others how you want to be treated.” This saying goes far beyond simply being kind to people, or going out of your way to be available or helpful to those in need. You actively would want to assist others in difficult, unpleasant or even in unfavourable circumstances.

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3. Anonymous complaints We value all complaints. This means we treat all complaints, including anonymous complaints, seriously and will take action to consider them further, wherever this is appropriate. Generally, we will consider anonymous complaints if there is enough information in the complaint to enable us to make further enquiries. If, however, an anonymous complaint does not provide enough information to enable us to take further action, we may decide not to pursue it further. Any decision not to pursue an anonymous complaint must be authorised by the relevant Facilities Manager. If we pursue an anonymous complaint further, we will record the issues as an anonymous complaint in the complaints log. This will help to ensure the completeness of the complaints data we record and allow us to take corrective action where appropriate.

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4. Acknowledging a complaint Always acknowledge a complaint and show a customer that you care and take their comments seriously. This will also reaffirm them of your professional handling of the situation. You should acknowledge the complaint in the same format it was received e.g. in person or in writing. In person If someone complaints to you in person say “Thank you for bringing this to my attention” or “Thank you for sharing your concerns with me” or “I appreciate that you have taken the time to share your concerns with me”. In writing You may respond in an email or letter. Besides using the standard format for business correspondence, you should cover the following:

• Thank you for your email/letter dated…

• We appreciate the time you have taken to share your concerns

regarding….with us

• We are currently investigating the matter and will respond to you within the

next 2 working days

Make sure you either use approved templates or get a colleague to proof read your response before it gets send out. If you send an email out make sure you copy relevant team members in.

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5. What to do when you receive a complaint

1. On receiving a complaint, you must first decide whether the issue can indeed

be defined as a complaint. The customer may express dissatisfaction about

more than one issue. This may mean you treat one element as a complaint,

while possibly directing the customer to pursue another element through an

alternative route. However, always remember to make it as easy as possible

for a customer and if you can help with all their issues please do so.

2. If you have received and identified a complaint, gather enough information so that you can update the complaint log but also brief a colleague should you have to pass on the complaint.

3. Next, decide whether or not the complaint can be handled by you. Some

complaints will need to be fully investigated before you can give the customer a suitable response and that may mean that you need the help of a colleague.

4. Where you think you can handle the situation, you must consider five key

questions:

• What exactly is the customer's complaint or complaints?

• What does the customer want to achieve by complaining?

• Can I achieve this, or explain why not?

• Are the customer's expectations realistic and achievable?

• Do you potentially need help from a colleague or another department?

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6. Instant Resolutions & Investigations This complaint handling procedure aims to provide a quick, simple and streamlined process for resolving complaints early and locally. Ideally, we would like all complaints to be handled and solved instantly. However, this may not always be possible. Instant Resolution Instant resolutions aim to quickly resolve straightforward customer complaints that require little or no investigation. Any member of staff may deal with complaints at this stage. The main principle is to seek early resolution, resolving complaints at the earliest opportunity and as close to the point of service delivery as possible. This may mean a face-to-face discussion with the customer or asking an appropriate member of staff to deal directly with the complaint. In practice, instant resolution means resolving the complaint at the first point of contact with the customer, either by the member of staff receiving the complaint or other identified staff. In either case, you may settle the complaint by providing an on-the-spot apology where appropriate, or explaining why the issue occurred and, where possible, what will be done to stop this happening again. You should also explain that, as an organisation that values complaints, we may use the information given when we review service standards in the future. Investigation A complaint must be escalated to the investigation stage when:

• Instant resolution was tried but the customer remains dissatisfied and

requests an investigation into the complaint

• The customer refuses to take part in the instant resolution process

• The issues raised are complex and require detailed investigation

• The complaint relates to serious, high-risk or high-profile issues

Take particular care to identify complaints that might be considered serious, high risk or high profile, as these may require particular action or raise critical issues that need senior management's immediate and direct input. Potential high-risk or high profile complaints are those that may:

• Involve a death or serious injury

• Involve serious service failure, for example major delays in providing, or

repeated failures to provide a service

• Generate significant and ongoing press interest

• Present issues of a highly sensitive nature

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Complaints handled at the investigation stage are typically more complex or require a detailed examination before we can state our position. These complaints may already have been considered at the instant resolution stage, or they may have been identified from the start as needing immediate investigation. An investigation aims to establish all the facts relevant to the points made in the complaint and to give the customer a full, objective and proportionate response that represents our final position. What to do when you receive a complaint for investigation It is important to be clear from the start of the investigation stage exactly what you are investigating, and to ensure that both the customer and we understand the investigation's scope. It may be helpful to discuss and confirm these points with the customer at the outset, to establish why they are dissatisfied and whether the outcome they are looking for sounds realistic. It may be that the customer expects more than we can provide. If so, you must make this clear to the customer as soon and as diplomatic as possible. Where possible you should also clarify what additional information you will need to investigate the complaint. The customer may need to provide more evidence to help us reach a decision. Details of the complaint and investigation must be recorded. Where appropriate, this will be done as a continuation of instant resolution entry.

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7. Complaint handling steps Once you identified that you can handle the situation it is best to follow L.E.A.R.N L – Listen Give a customer time to vent their frustration and attentively listen to them and their concerns.

Stop whatever you are doing and give your full attention to your customer

Keep eye contact

Nod (non verbal communication accounts for 93% of our communication)

Ask the customer if it is okay to take notes. This way you do not have to recall information from memory.

Do NOT interrupt the customer and do NOT tell the customer to calm down

Do NOT take a complaint personal Remain confident but be careful not to come across arrogant

E – Empathise Emphasising means that you put yourself into the customer’s shoes and try to understand what it must be like not to receive the service that you expect.

Never pretend to understand how the customer feels unless you have had a similar experience in the past

Instead say “I can imagine how you must feel. If this would have happened to me, I would be upset too. I can see why you are upset…, I am sorry you had to experience this. I can imagine how frustrating this must be”.

Never apologise in advance as we do not know yet know if this is truly our fault. Instead say “I am sorry to hear this”.

A – Ask questions Asking questions will help you to identify if you can handle the complaint yourself or if it requires a more detailed investigation.

You can also ask questions to reconfirm what was said e.g. your air-condition unit was not working all day yesterday and today, is that correct?

Obtain as many details as possible and ask follow up questions

When and how did it happen? Who was involved?

Did you report the issue to any other team member before?

Don’t ask something the customer already explained

R – Resolve Spring into action and resolve the issue as fast as possible.

The solution must relate to the problem

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If the customer is not happy about the solution, ask him/her if he has any suggestions

The solution needs to be acceptable for both parties N – Next Make sure that you do not leave the issue at the point when you believe it is resolved. Often other departments are involved and they could have forgotten to action what you had asked of them.

Follow up with anyone involved in fixing the issue e.g. maintenance

Follow up with customer and check satisfaction

Update resolution details in the complaints log

Handover relevant details to the oncoming shift

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8. Remedies for complaints Where our service has not met our standards, or we accept that our standards need changing, we will:

• Apologise for the failure in service

• Explain what went wrong

• Where appropriate, say how we have learned from the complaint

• Say what we have done to address the problem

The underlying objective of this complaints procedure is to ensure that, wherever possible and practical, someone affected when something has gone wrong should be returned to the position they would have been in if the failure had not occurred. Remedies should:

• Be fair and reasonable

• Be proportionate to the degree and nature of the failure and hardship or the

injustice suffered

• Take into account the wishes and needs of the customer

• Be provided in a timely manner

• Provide, as far as possible, a comprehensive resolution of the issue

remembering that it may apply not only to the customer but to others who

have suffered as a result of the same failure.

Remedies may be limited by:

• The time since the problem occurred

• The degree to which the customer had a contributory responsibility for the

failure and the detriment suffered

• Legal restrictions

There are a number of actions we can take to put things right:

• Providing the service: Where we have failed to provide a service that we

agree the customer is entitled to, we should ensure that the service is

provided in an agreed timetable, explaining any delay.

• Backdating the service: Where we have not provided a service that we should

have, it may be appropriate to backdate the service to when it should have

been provided in the first instance.

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9. Timelines Instant resolution cases should be resolved immediately and on the same day. Any cases under investigation must be completed within two working days, although in practice we would often expect to resolve the complaint much sooner. You may need to get more information from other services or departments to resolve the complaint. However, it is important to respond to the customer within two working days, either resolving the matter or explaining that their complaint is to be investigated further. Extension to the timeline Not all investigations will be able to meet the above deadline. For example, some complaints are so complex that they require careful consideration and detailed investigation. In exceptional circumstances, where there are clear and justifiable reasons for doing so, your manager may agree to an extension. We must always try to deliver a final response to a complaint within four working days.

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10. Where a complaint is handled off site Where an expression of dissatisfaction is initially made orally and cannot be satisfied at source, it will be treated as a complaint and the complainant will be asked to send a written summary of the complaint to our complaints handling officer: Enter Name here Job Title Company Name here Address Line 1 City Postcode Email: Direct Tel: Once we have received the written summary of the complaint, we will contact the complainant in writing within 2 working days to inform them of our understanding of the circumstances leading to their complaint. You will be invited to make any comments that you may have in relation to this. If, following initial discussions with our Complaints Handling Officer, their complaint remains unresolved, it will be investigated either by him or passed to an appropriate Director who has been appointed by him to deal with the complaint. The person dealing with the complaint will, on completion of their investigations and within 28 days of receipt of the written summary of the complaint, write to the complainant to inform them of the outcome of their investigations and let them know what actions have been or will be taken. Once you have been informed of the outcome of our investigations and in the event that you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your complaint, you will have the option of requesting that the matter either initially be reviewed by our Chief Executive Officer or referring it directly to the appropriate free and independent alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism we have adopted: Enter Name here Job Title Company Name here Address Line 1 City Postcode Email: Direct Tel: All other issues: Enter Name here Job Title

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Company Name here Address Line 1 City Postcode Email: Direct Tel:

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11. Closing a complaint Once all issues have been either resolved to the satisfaction of the customer or where it was decided that no further action can be taken, the complaint can be considered closed. If an electronic complaint log is used the complaint should then be marked closed or resolved. It is important that the customer is informed of this closure. You can do so by emailing, writing or speaking to the customer.

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12. Recording complaints It is important to keep a full and accurate record of the complaint to help us better understand what had happened, how we solved the issue and how it can be avoided in future. Your entry into any complaint log, electronic or on paper must be accurate, free of spelling mistakes, neutral and objective. Minimum information must include:

Customer's name and company

The date and time the complaint was received

The nature of the complaint

How the complaint was received

The service the complaint refers to

The date the complaint was escalated (if applicable)

Person, colleague or department the complaint was referred to or handed

over to (if applicable)

Action taken

The outcome of the complaint

The date the complaint was closed

The complaints log will be regularly reviewed by management to improve services

and ensure that issues are avoided in the future.

Please see below example of a possible complaints log and a sample entry.

Complaints Log Example

Site Name:

Date Time Reported

by: Nature of complaint

Action taken / Result

Team Member

12.07.2020 14:00 Mr Ralph Smith of Langley Falls Ltd.

Mr Smith had hired meeting room 502 and complaint about the noise coming from the neighbouring meeting room 503.

Personally spoke to Lisa Simmons from Top HR Training Ltd. who had a training session in meeting room 503. She explained that this was just a short group session and the rest of her training would be quiet. Informed Mr Smith and he was happy. I patrolled

Martin Hartmann

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the meeting room several times thereafter and no auditable noise could be heard coming from 503. No further action is required.

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13. Maintaining confidentiality

Confidentiality is important in complaints handling. It includes maintaining the

customer's confidentiality and explaining to them the importance of confidentiality

generally should they be concerned about their details being shared. We must

always bear in mind legal requirements, for example, data protection legislation

(GDPR), as well as internal policies on confidentiality and the use of customers'

information. For further details also see SOP X on XXX.

Whilst we need to keep a complaints log with confidential information, you must

make sure not to share this with unauthorised individuals.

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14. Exceptions There are no exceptions.

Declaration The aforementioned procedures are to be followed at all times with the utmost strictness. Not following the procedure could lead to potentially more complex and lengthy complaints. It may also harm company reputation and violate legal requirements. Any team member found not to be following aforementioned procedure will face disciplinary action. This standard operating procedure is in accordance to the organization's mission statement and has been reviewed and approved as outlined at the beginning of this document.

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Training Record Log I understand the Standard Operating Procedures for “Complaint Handling” and will comply with it at all times:

Trainee Name Trainee Signature Trainer Signature Date