Customer Service &
Issue Handling
This sets out our approach to providing customer services, responding to customer’s comments, complaints and compliments.
Our overall aim is to provide you an insight to the service you should receive, welcome feedback, resolve any issues quickly, effectively and locally; then use the information to improve services and learn from our mistakes.
Where possible we want to resolve any issues or concerns straight away, informally. If this is not possible, we will use this policy to help us work with complainants to resolve their complaint.
We believe all our customers have the right to:
- A provision of service before, during, and after a purchase.
- Have their views heard.
- Obtain prompt action when our service is below the standards we set.
- Receive a good quality service.
We expect all our staff, contractors and other partners to be:
- Efficient and sensitive to the needs of our customers.
- Accessible and clearly identified.
- Aware of the day-to-day concerns of our customers.
What is customer service, comment, complaint or compliment?
- Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.
- A Comment is an idea, suggestion or opinion on how Jollof Mama could improve its services.
- A Complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction with a service that Jollof Mama provides, whether it is justified or not, provided issues in the complaint were brought to the attention of Jollof Mama within 6 months of their occurring or not occurring.
- A Compliment is resident or customer feedback which informs Jollof Mama that it has provided a service well, or how helpful a member of staff has been.
What kind of service do you expect?
We aim to take care of the customer’s needs by providing and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and assistance before, during, and after the customer’s requirements are met.
Who can make a comment, complain or give a compliment?
Anyone can make a comment, complain or give a compliment. A complainant who does not receive services from Jollof Mama will not be able to escalate their complaint past the first stage of this policy.
POLICY
In welcoming and valuing comments, complaints and compliments as important feedback to shape service improvements Jollof Mama will:
- Make it easy for anyone to make a comment, complaint or compliment.
- Ensure that all staff are aware of and trained.
We will ensure staff:
- Accept comments, complaints and compliments in any format.
- Respond to all complaints, comments and compliments received within a reasonable time or if this is not possible contact the customer and explain when they will hear from us.
- Investigate all complaints fully and impartially.
- When responding to informal complaints or comments, ensure that staff are clear.
- Identify learning and make service improvements from comments, complaints and compliments.
When resolving and responding to complaints we will:
- Make personal contact by the appropriate means, to everyone who complains.
- Reply using plain English.
- Address all the points raised and explain what Jollof Mama will do to resolve the issue.
- Provide a response in different formats where necessary.
- Not close a complaint until we have done everything, we have said we would do.
We will consider escalating the complaint if:
The complainant is not satisfied with the outcome and tell us they are not happy with the outcome.
To support our staff to manage and resolve complaints we will address persistent or unacceptable behavior by complainants. This could include limiting the ways a complainant can complain, changing target times for responses or responding to a complaint without a full investigation. This might occur when a complainant is deliberately repetitious, threatening or abusive and must be agreed by the relevant Director of the service.
Overall Responsibility for complaints
We aim to meet high standards of good practice and impartiality. It is overseen by the main staff whose aim is to support complainants and the rest of the business to resolve complaints.
The Director/s will have overall ownership for the complaints and ensuring that they use the complaints to drive service improvements.
Equality and diversity implications
In carrying out its services, Jollof Mama is committed to: –
- Treating all customers positively regardless of sexual orientation, gender, race, disability, religion or age.
- Taking seriously all complaints of harassment, bullying, discrimination or victimisation, investigating and responding accordingly.
- Ensuring all correspondence is written using plain language.
PROCEDURE
How will we receive a comment, complaint or compliment?
- We will aim to make it as easy as possible for customers to give us feedback.
- We will receive feedback, through our website, by email, face to face, over the phone or social media platforms.
- A comment, complaint or compliment can be made to any Jollof Mama member of staff, in any format and does not need to be in writing.
Responding to comments
- When Jollof Mama receives a comment, it will be recorded on our monitoring system to ensure it is tracked and responded to within published timescales.
- We will reply to the customer within 5 working days and let them know of any action Jollof Mama will take as a result of their comment and what we have learnt from it.
Responding to compliments
When Jollof Mama receives a compliment, it will be recorded and acknowledged.
First Stage
Jollof Mama expects customers to talk to staff delivering services. Queries and informal complaints received by a member of staff, will be passed on to the relevant member of staff. These will not be logged as formal complaints at this stage.
Most complaints should be resolved informally without further action. We expect all staff to find solutions to resolve queries and issues raised by residents and customers.
However, if the customer is still not satisfied, they must be told about the formal complaints policy and procedure and be given a complaint form or any assistance they need to make a complaint.
Complaints Stages
There will be two stages in the complaint process:
- First stage – dealt with by the main Staff Members
- Escalation – dealt with by the Service Director/s
With every complaint and stage, we will aim to reply to your complaint and aim to resolve the complaint in full, within 20 working days. If we cannot resolve within 20 working days, we will contact the complainant to explain why and when the complainant can expect it to be fully resolved.
In our replies we will:
- Use plain English.
- Summarise the complaint and address all the points made in one reply.
- Explain what we have done and will do to resolve the complaint.
- Say whether the complaint is upheld, fully, partially or not upheld.
Outline any learning we have identified so far.
Explain what the complainant can do if they are not happy with our response and provide details of the next stage of our complaints procedure.
