Citizen‘s Charter

Making complaints systems work

Prof. Salvador Parrado Prof. Salvador Parrado
UNED and Governance UNED and Governance
International

Citizen Charter, Second Training Seminar
Prague, 19-20 Prague, 19-20 June

Recommendations for dealing with complaints

• Keep it simple - avoid long forms.
• Use the phone more than a letter.
• Find out straight away what the person complaining wants you to do about the problem.
• For less serious complaints, better a quick apology.
• Give personal and specific replies, not standard answers.
• Treat people as you'd like your mother to be treated.
• Don't pass the problem. If you need to refer to someone else give the customer full details.
• Be clear about your remedies.
• Feedback citizens about improvements resulting from their complaints.
• More complaints show that your customers trust you to take them seriously.

Stages of developing a complaints system

• Service standards
• How to complain
• The stages of the complaints procedures
• Deadlines for receiving a reply
• The possible result

Access to the complaints procedure

• Encouraging complaints and compliments by advertising your procedures and making them easy to use.
• Making it clear that you welcome complaints and comments and will use the information to improve your services.
• Allowing complaints for users with special difficulties, reading disability or whose first language is not Czech.
• Carrying out surveys and ‘mistery shoppers’ to check that your system is easy to use

Handling complaints

• Having clear written procedures
• Consulting staff and users when drawing up and revising complaints procedures.
• Fair treatment of staff and users, and confidentiality of information.
• All staff, especially those who have most contact with users, should know your policy and receive training.
• A menu of remedies that staff and users should understand.
• Get senior managers' commitment to handling complaints properly.

Dos about handling a complaint

• give your name
• take the person who complains seriously
• tell the person what will happen next and the stages of the procedure
• act quickly once the complainant has left
• get their details, e.g. names, addresses, telephone numbers, dates
• listen, get the facts and make notes
• stay calm even if the person gets angry
• be sympathetic and honest

Don’ts about handling a complaint

• argue with the complainant
• get into a blame conversation
• accept abuse from a complainant, e.g. swearing
• deter people from making a complaint (asking them not do it, to do it in writing, in person or coming back later)
• consider the complaint as a personal criticism
• use jargon when writing back to the complainant

Organising the handling of your complaints system

• Encouraging front-line staff to 'own' complaints combined with a centrally monitoring system
• Responsibility for investigating and replying to complaints should generally lie with the section responsible for the failure in service.
• The sections handling complaints should maintain close links with all parts of the organisation.

The procedure about the written reply should
(i)

• be written in clear language;
• be simple to operate;
• cover complaints about both operational and policy matters;
• be reviewed regularly; and

The procedure about the written reply should
(ii)

• aim to answer all the points of concern;
• be factually correct;
• avoid jargon;
• be signed by the officer responsible;
• contain a contact phone number and e-mail; and
• tell the person what to do next if they are still not satisfied.

Results

• Analysing complaints to understand users' views and the improvements they want.
• Publishing information at least once a year on:
• the number and type of complaints;
• how quickly they were dealt with;
• users' satisfaction; and
• actions taken as a result.
• Sending information from complaints to policy makers.
• Using Internet
• Having complaints reviewed by someone not responsible for the person or service complained about

Summing up the features of a good complaints system

• easy to access and well publicised;
• speedy - with fixed time limits for action and keeping people informed of progress;
• confidential - to protect staff and those who complain;
• informative - providing information to management so that services can be improved;
• simple to understand and use;
• fair - with a full procedure for investigations;
• effective - dealing with all points raised and providing suitable remedies; and
• regularly monitored and audited - to make sure that it is effective and improved.