Comments, Compliments and Complaints Policy & Procedure.

Scope of this policy

This Policy and Procedure applies to all areas of Age UK North Tyneside Group, all customers, staff, volunteers, trainees and visitors.

This Policy covers:

  1. Customer Comments
  2. Customer Compliments
  3. Customer Complaints
  4. Complaint Reporting
  5. Complaint Handling and Control
  6. Unresolved Complaints
  7. Review of Complaints

Purpose

The Group is committed to provide a high standard of service delivery to all our customers, (whether internal or external customers) to ensure that their experience of Age UK North Tyneside is a valued one.  Where either an issue of service, quality, availability or general environment problem does not meet the expectations or requirements of our customers a consistent or thorough response needs to be initiated with decisions/actions to prevent any re-occurrence.

This Policy and Procedure has been established to ensure that all customer comments, compliments and complaints are reported to a central point, monitored and recorded in a standard format and that all complaints if necessary will be investigated by the Chief Executive’s Office who is responsible for closely monitoring and reviewing all complaints thoroughly to ensure a satisfactory conclusion is achieved.

The Head of Corporate Support is also responsible for producing an annual analysis of comments, compliments and complaints received to present to the Group Chief Executive.

Policy Statement

Age UK North Tyneside believes that if a customer wishes to make a comment, compliment or register a complaint they should find it easy to do so.  It is Group’s policy to welcome comments, compliments and complaints and looks upon them as an opportunity to learn, adapt, improve and provide better services.  This policy is intended to ensure that comments, compliments and complaints are acknowledged, dealt with properly and are taken seriously.

Age UK North Tyneside believes that failure to listen to or acknowledge complaints will lead to an aggravation of problems, customer dissatisfaction and possible litigation.  The Group supports the concept that complaints, if dealt with early, openly and honestly can be sorted between the complainant and the Group.

The aim of this Policy is to ensure that its Comments, Compliments and Complaints Procedure is properly and effectively implemented and that customers feel confident that their comments, compliments and complaints are recognised, acknowledged, listened to and acted upon promptly and fairly where required and if appropriate.

Age UK North Tyneside has also produced a Guidance for Customers wanting to make a complaint which guides you through the whole process and explains your right to complain, how to make a complaint, who can help you make a complaint, what support is available, what you should consider prior to making a complaint and what to do if you are not happy with the outcome.

Procedure

This Procedure describes the actions to be taken by the Group when there are positive or negative views or improvement suggestions from customers or their representatives.

  1. Customer Comments

Definition of a comment: a remark, observation or criticism that may require immediate action but does not require a full investigation.

Lets us know your thoughts on what we could do better. The Head of Corporate Support records the details of all comments received to a central Register and then pass them on to the Department concerned so that they can look at how improvements can be made.

  1. Customer Compliments

Lets us know when we are getting things right. Any compliment received is shared with the relevant Department.

If the compliment is about an individual staff member they are then informed in writing by the Line Manager and a copy of the compliment and letter is stored in their Personnel File.

Compliments can help us share good practice and improve services.

  1. Complaint Reporting

Definition of a Complaint: An expression of dissatisfaction, whether verbal or written, and whether justified or not and which requires further investigation

1. Date of Complaint

2. Name, Address, Email address and Telephone Number of the complainant

3.  Name of staff who is reporting the complaint

4. Brief overview of the nature of the complaint

5. The AUK004 form if the complaint is received verbally should be completed fully with a full description of the complaint

  1. Complaint Handling and Control
  1. Unresolved Complaints
  1. Overview of Complaints


Authorised by:

Dawn McNally



Group Chief Executive



The Age UK North Tyneside Group strives to ensure equality of opportunity for all, both as an employer and a provider of services. This policy has therefore been equality impact assessed by the Head of Corporate Support to ensure fairness and consistency for all those covered by it regardless of their individual differences



See Flowchart below for Customer Complaint Notification Procedures

CE denotes Group Chief Executive’s Office & HoCS denotes Head of Corporate Support

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