Complaints Procedure

What is a complaint? For the purpose of this procedure, a complaint may be defined as:

‘an expression of dissatisfaction by one or more individuals about the standard of service, action or lack of action by Information Services.’

A complaint may relate to:

the quality and standard of service
failure to provide a service
the quality of IT Services
treatment by or attitude of an Information Services team member
inappropriate behaviour by an Information Services team member
the failure of Information Services to follow an appropriate process
dissatisfaction with Information Services policies.

Complaints differ from escalations due to the expression of dissatisfaction within a complaint. Complaints can be triggered by anyone using services delivered by Information Services by phone, email, myservice or through a discussion with a member of the IS team. Normally, a complaint must be within six months of the event the customer wants to complain about. In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to accept a complaint after the time limit. If the customer feels that the time limit should not apply to their complaint, reasons would need to be given.

Once a complaint has been identified then the IS staff member should collect all relevant information and include this in the incident or request that relates to the complaint. The customer should be informed that a manager will be contacting them within 24 hours to discuss this with them and the details of the complaint should be emailed to their manager and they will take ownership of the complaint.

The manager will then asses the details and contact the customer to advise they have taken ownership of the complaint and provide contact information. At this point the manager will advise next steps, the method of communication, when regular updates will occur and that our timescale for resolving complaints is 5 working days. The manager will also explain the Complaints Procedure and how this integrates within the university procedure (Stage 1 vs Stage 2).

The manager will then try to resolve the complaint. This may mean that other IS team members will be brought in to either resolve the issue or try to find the root cause of the complaint. Their manager must be made aware that resource is being taken to resolve the complaint. If the manager is unable to resolve the complaint, then they must ensure they have the reasons behind why this complaint cannot be resolved and this must be relayed to the customer. If the customer is unhappy with the outcome of the complaint at this point, then the complaint should be escalated. There are three levels of escalation.

Level 1: Service Desk Team Leader
Level 2: Head of Service Management
Level 3: IT Director

At each level the escalation manager will try to resolve the complaint and keep the customer informed at all times. If they are unable to resolve the complaint to the customer’s satisfaction it must be escalated to the next level.

Finally, if the complaint has been resolved, or the escalation path has been exhausted, the customer must be contacted with the final outcome. If unresolved, once again the University Complaints Procedure must be advised to the customer so they know what further steps could be taken. It must be with the customer’s agreement that the complaint be closed. Once the complaint has been closed the complaint should be documented within the complaints spreadsheet which can be found within the file section of the Staff IT ISOG Team.

As part of the university complaints procedure all complaints need to be documented in the Complaints team spreadsheet, provided by the Complaints team and sent to them quarterly. All information from the complaint should be included in the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is sent by the Complaints team when they request for complaint data and is also included on Staff IT ISOG Team.