Complaints procedure

 1.           General

This protocol provides guidelines for dealing with complaints at KidsRights.  

Aim of the protocol

With our protocol, we want to offer the best services possible to the outside world, donors and third parties. It is also meant to provide management, donor administration and PR a thorough insight into the number, type and severity of complaints received.  

Description of a complaint

A complaint is information that indicates that the outside world, donors or third parties perceive our message or action in a way differing from our intentions. A complaint provides valuable information to KidsRights on how to improve expressions or activities in order to meet general standards.  

A complaint contains important information about the complainant. It shows that:

• he or she is motivated to tell KidsRights something
• he or she is willing to make the effort to write or call
• he or she trusts KidsRights will use the information provided to improve its services
• he or she knows something KidsRights doesn’t know yet; something has gone wrong.  

A complaint can be expressed in various ways: by letter, email, phone, or personally. It can be done:

• through words (what the complaint is about)
• through intonation (the way a complaint is expressed)
• clear or casual (at the end of a conversation or in between lines)  

Information

• when requested, KidsRights offers information on how it has handled a complaint
• substantive views on the policy of KidsRights are formulated by the Management Team (after consulting with the Executive board)
• complaints are handled as soon as possible - a reply will never take more than 14 working days
• the reply is personal
• all complaints are registered  

Appeal

If the complainant isn’t satisfied with the way KidsRights has dealt with his/her complaint, he/she can appeal to the Managing Director in writing. A reply has to be given within 14 working days.  

Handling of complaints

Any complaint, whether by telephone, in writing, by email or personally, must be noted in the complaint form and must contain the following data:

• date of entry
• initials of recipient
• name, address, city of complainant
• telephone number of complainant
• if necessary, donor number and/or invoice -description of complaint
• indication of the action KidsRights is going to take -per complaint, in which category it falls  

Cancellation

A cancellation can be based on a complaint, even though it is not clearly expressed as such. Therefore, always ask for the reason of the cancellation. If a complaint proves to be the cause, then a complaint form must be completed and dealt with.  

Handling

A complaint must be handled within a fortnight. The handling may include an oral or written reply, or the sending or exchanging of goods. After the final handling of a complaint, it has to be filed.  

Prevention

If we ourselves find out that something goes wrong, we can anticipate on future complaints. We can do so by approaching donors beforehand. Sending a letter outlining the problem that arose, accompanied by a proposed solution and an apology, may prevent a future complaint.  

Reporting

At the end of each quarter, complaints are headed per month, totalled and reported to the Management Team. To this end, the following classification is used: -policy/appearance -fundraising -public relations -project assistance -entry in administration -no response received .

2.           Complaints procedure Information and Service: donors and non-donors

Complaints are an important source of information for the quality assessment of our work by donors and non-donors. It is imperative to gain an ever better insight in the number and type of complaints we receive, so that we can act on them through our internal procedures.  

When do we speak of a complaint?

When someone specifically addresses us with a negative or critical remark, we consider this to be a complaint. The complaint can be made by phone, post or e-mail and may refer to the following topics:

• marketing policy: such as the number and the content of mailings and the amount of the yearly donation
• actions: for example the services of active ambassadors
• administrative matters: such as an authorization that has not been stopped in time, a change of address that has not been implemented or a refund of an overpaid donation that has not yet been received
• treatment: for example the way phone calls are answered, the tone of a letter, the time it took to reply and the contactability by phone
• incidents at productions, like galas and Children's Peace Prize ceremony.

Handling of complaints

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All complaints whether received by letter, telephone, e-mail or otherwise must be replied to within 5 working days. If an answer to a complaint requires further investigation, the complainant must receive a notice within 4 working days stating that his or her complaint is being been dealt with and that a reply will follow soon, within 10 working days at the latest.  

Complaints to which a standard reply is applicable are replied to accordingly. Complaints for which no standard answer is available are reported to the head of the Office Department. He or she will address the employee regarding the subject to which the complaint is related. The employee sets up guidelines according to which the complaint should be answered. If applicable, these guidelines are added to the standard replies.  

When we receive several - at least 5 - complaints regarding the same issue in a short period of time, the head of the Office Department and the employee responsible for the subject of the complaint must be informed immediately. The complaints are examined by the employee and, if applicable, processes that have led to the complaint are adjusted or altered. Depending on how the complaint is communicated initially, it will be replied to by means of telephone, e-mail or letter.  

Registration of complaints

 In general, the complainant is known to us. If so the complaint can be added to the related relationship. When someone is not yet known to us,  the relationship must be entered into CRM with source code 10226.  

Tab Contact, press button “New Action ", select appropriate action, select appropriate topic.  

Then, clear description; fill in briefly what the complaint is about and report method of handling. Due to shortage of space, we use the following abbreviations: PBA (handled by letter), PMA (handled by e-mail) and PTA (handled by phone).   If the complaint is handled the same day, click on the button Realize Action. 

If the complaint is to be handled at another time, then click on the button Save Action. When the complaint is dealt with,  look up the message in CRM and press the Realize Action button.  

Open actions

If you have entered a complaint, but not dealt with it immediately, CRM will register it as an Open Action.  On the first CRM screen, you can select your number of open actions.  This acts as a reminder to you regarding complaints that need to be dealt with. To do this, check Running Actions in the first screen. Then select your name and login code in Selection Criteria for Actions, then check all projects and all actions. Click the button Activate List and you will see all ongoing actions.  

Method of Filing

If complaints are handled by e-mail or by letter, a copy of the letter or e-mail must always be filed together with the original notification of the complaint in the complaints folder, by date of handling. 

Overview Complaints

Each quarter, an overview of all outstanding and handled complaints is printed. This overview enables us to see if we have a lot of complaints about a particular subject. If it proves that we receive more than the average number of complaints about a particular subject, the colleague responsible for the subject will be addressed.   

3.           Complaints procedure Dutch website KidsRights

On this page-https://kidsrights.org/nl/over-kidsrights-a block of Feedback has been added. On the feedback page-https://kidsrights.org/nl/feedback- people can fill in the contact form to make their complaint known.  

A completed form is sent by mail to info@kidsrights.org. This mail looks the same as the regular contact form (https://kidsrights.org/nl/contact). In the mail you can see on which page the form is filled in.  

If the email sent from a completed contact form has the URL/contact, it will be filed in as a request for contact (see Appendix VB Contact Form). If the e-mail that is sent from a completed contact form has the URL/feedback, then it is filed in as a complaint (see Appendix VB Feedback Form).  

In short: if you receive a [contact form] mail in which the URL is https://kidsrights.org/nl/feedback, you are dealing with a complaint.