General Complaints Procedure

Name: Nicki Isagba – Complaints Manager

Telephone:  020 8500 6789 

E-mail:  [email protected]

Address: 140 Tomswood Hill, Ilford, Essex, IG6 2QP

Web: www.bluebelldp.co.uk

At Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd we believe that if a customer wishes to file a complaint or express dissatisfaction, it should be easy for them to do so. 

It is Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd policy to receive complaints and consider them as an opportunity to learn, adapt, improve, and provide a better service.

In addition, a quick resolution of a complaint, in a way that respects and values the person’s feedback, can be one of the most important factors in recovering the persons confidence in our products and services.  It can also help prevent further escalation of the complaint.  A responsive, efficient, and fair complaint management procedure can assist us to achieve this on each complaint.

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that complaints are dealt with consistently and properly and that all comments and complaints are taken seriously.  This organisation expects staff at all levels to be committed to fair, effective and efficient complaint handling.

Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd will ensure that our customers have a right to:

• Be treated fairly and sensitively
• Be kept informed about what is happening with their complaint
• And be advised of the service standards they should expect
• The timescale for acknowledging and responding to a complaint
• And any right of appeal.

All staff representing Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd will:

• Be sensitive to the particular needs of customers
• Treat complaints as confidential, where possible
• Be accessible and clearly identified.

Our policy will:

• Be open, easily accessible, and widely promoted to all our customers and those who represent them
• Be easy to understand and use by all customers and employees
• Set out how to complain and how a complaint should be handled.

This policy applies to all staff receiving or managing complaints from customers made to us or about us, regarding our products, services, staff, and complaint handling.

Our customers may contact us in the best way that suits their needs, we will ensure that customers calling us can do this on our local rate phone number.

The company’s objective is to ensure that its complaints procedures is properly implemented effectively, and that complainants feel confident that their complaints, worries, or concerns are listened to and acted upon promptly and equitably.

Our complaints management system aims to:

• Record the customer complaint on their individual file and on the complaints register
• Allow us to respond to questions raised by people who file a complaint in a timely manner
• Increase the confidence of the person making a complaint or providing feedback and comments, in our administrative procedures, and
• Provide information that we can improve the quality of our products and services, staff training and complaint handling
• Record any *remedial actions taken and any redress that is paid to a customer or both may be appropriate, and the reasons for us coming to those decisions
• This policy provides guidance to all our staff and to individuals who wish to file a complaint about our key principles and concept of our complaints management system.

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about our products, services, our staff, our actions, or lack of actions taken regarding operations, facilities, advertising and marketing information and anybody or company acting on our behalf.

A formal complaint means a complaint that has not been successfully resolved through our complaint management systems outlined in this policy. The complainant has chosen to formalise the complaint by completing our complaint form, or by writing to us.

An informal complaint means a complaint that has been received by us, by phone, email, postal mail or in person, which has not been submitted on our complaint form.

All complaints will be recorded on both the client file and the complaint management system.  This is a software system we have designed in house to enable us to track the complaint and use the management information for future developments, improvements to our products and procedures as well as providing accurate information for external bodies, regulators and our lender partners.

We will confirm the complaint details to the customer in writing (this maybe email / text message or letter depending on the customer’s choice) within 3 working days of receipt.

We will continue to keep the customer informed on the progress of the complaint weekly, in writing, in their preferred method of contact i.e., email or post.

If the complaint involves a third party, such as a manufacturing fault, we will hold the complaint as we see the customer as our customer and work with the manufacture to resolve the fault. We will inform the customer of the third party promptly; including the third-party contact details where applicable.

Oral Complaints

Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd staff who receive a verbal complaint should try to resolve this immediately if possible.

Information is to be recorded on the customers file, including the completion of the complaints form and a letter or email sent to the customer clarifying the complaint and action to be taken including estimated time frames.  This can also be communicated verbally but will always be followed up in writing.  This is to be done within three days of the oral complaint being received.

The complaint is to be discussed with the company complaints manager.

Nicki Isagba is the named person who deals with complaint through the process.  When staff or management receive an oral complaint, both should listen sincerely to the issues raised by the complainant. Any contact with a complainant must be polite, courteous, and sympathetic.  At all times, staff and management must remain calm and respectful.

After discussing the issues raised each staff member or management handling the complaint should suggest an action plan to resolve the complaint.  If this action plan is acceptable, staff or management should clarify the agreement with the complainant and agree on a way in which the results of the complaint will be communicated to the complainant this may mean a meeting or in writing.

If the proposed action plan is not acceptable to the complainant, staff or management should ask the complainant to make their complaint in writing to Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd and provide a copy of our complaint’s procedure and a complaint form.

When a complaint is received in writing, it must be forwarded to the named complaints contact, Nicki Isagba Manager of Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd who must enter the details into the complaints log and then send a acknowledge receipt within three working days in order to establish a relationship of confidence with the person who has raised the complaint.

If necessary, further clarification should be obtained from the complainant.  If the complaint is not made by our customer, but is made on their behalf, the customers consent, preferably in writing, must be obtained in advance from the customer.

After receiving the complaint, a copy of the complaint’s procedure must be given to the customer.  Clearly and politely explain the complaints process, the time it may take and realistic expectations.  We may have to arrange a visit to the customer’s home.  This must be arranged within 14-days and confirmed in writing.

Immediately on receipt of the complaint Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd will launch an investigation and within 28-days should be in a position to provide a written explanation to the complainant, either in writing or arranging a meeting to visit the individuals concerned.  On some occasions this may not be possible.  We will write to the customer and explain that we are still investigating, why there is a delay and propose a date that we hope to provide them with an explanation.

Complaints are an important management tool which allows us to learn about the products and services we provide. They are a useful source of information about how the customers see our services and how we are serving our customers.

To ensure that Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd can learn from its complaints, the following data should be collected for every complaint received:

• The name, address and contact details of complainant
• The name and role of the person internally dealing with the complaint
• The dates on which the complaint was received and on which it was responded to
• The nature of the complaint
• The outcome of the complaint
• How the complaint was received
• Remedial/Redress or both, action carried out in response to the complaint
• Lessons learnt from the complaint.

It is important that complaints information is reported and considered on a regular basis and shared at all levels with Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd

The following methods will be used to report complaints information:

• A weekly report to the management
• A monthly overview report compiled by the management team
• A 6-monthly report to show the data, causes and actions taken to avoid these complaints in the future.

We use some core principles that help us to provide effective management data, effective root cause analysis.  Not only will these help the analysis quality, but these will also help the analyst gain trust and buy-in from staff and customers:

• Focus on correcting and remedying root causes rather than just symptoms
• Do not ignore the importance of treating symptoms for short term relief
• Realise there can be, and often are, multiple root cause
• Focus on HOW and WHY something happened, not WHO was responsible
• Be methodical and find concrete cause-effect evidence to back up root cause claims
• Provide enough information to inform a corrective course of action
• Analysing guidance produced by agencies such as the FCA, regulators and FOS, and communicating it to the individuals dealing with complaints.
• Consider how a root cause can be prevented (or replicated) in the future.

The above principles illustrate when we analyse deep issues and causes, it is important to take a comprehensive and holistic approach. In addition to discovering the root cause, we should strive to provide context and information that will result in an action or a decision. Good analysis is actionable analysis.

To process a complaint, Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd will hold personal data about the complainant. This includes data the complainant provides us and information that other people provide, about the complaint, in response to our enquiries.  Nicki Isagba will hold this data securely and only use it to help process the complaint.

The identity of the person making the complaint will only be made known to those who need to consider the complaint and will not be revealed to any other person or be made public by us. However, it may not be possible to preserve confidentiality in some circumstances, for example, where relevant legislation applies, or allegations are made which involve the conduct of any third parties, for example delivery of the goods from a manufacturer. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, customers have a right to obtain a copy of their personal data. However, there are exceptions to this right. We normally destroy our complaint files six years after the complaint has been closed. We will maintain records for finance customers for a maximum of ten years.

Any complaint verbal or written, including electronically, will be referred to the complaints manager, Nicki Isagba at the earliest opportunity (max within 24 hours) or to the next senior member of the team if Nicki Isagba is unavailable. We will also:

• Record details on the customer’s file
• Record details on the complaints management system
• We will not delay the complaint by asking for it in writing to us about your complaint
• We will acknowledge the complaint in writing within three days, detailing our understanding of the complaint, our suggestion solution, and timeframes. Depending on the complaint this could take up to 28 days or longer
• We will make contact to seek clarification on any points where necessary
• Disclose to the customer any third parties that may be involved in resolving the complaint
• Fully investigate the complaint
• Keep the customer informed of our progress
• Keep the customer informed on time frames
• Discuss with you our findings and proposed response, which may a remedial or redress or both is appropriate
• Provide clear deadlines to respond
• Provide the customer with a final response.

The customer will receive contact from us advising on progress if we cannot respond immediately. We will let the customer have our final response as soon as possible and not later than eight weeks.

Customers may express dissatisfaction to us about our products, services, staff, or advertising. We will need to establish if the complaint relates to the information given, the firm, its staff, any finance product or the service and installation. If unclear, this must not delay investigation and we will proceed with our own investigation. Bluebell Dental Practice Ltd & Bluebell Aesthetics Clinic Ltd will review this matter and continue to investigate and provide a written explanation and any supporting information. This may include photos, checklists, or remedial satisfaction notes, which documents the work carried out to repair or replace any of the goods on the customer contract.

Nicki Isagba will establish the nature and scope of the complaint having due regards to the FCA direction:

• Deal with complaints promptly and fairly
• Give complainants clear replies and, where appropriate, fair redress
• If a third party is involved, such as a manufacture of the products we sell to our customers, we will liaise with them directly. Our customer is always seen as our customer.  If we have to share any data with the manufacture i.e., the customer’s name and address in order to contact a site visit, we will obtain authorisation from the customer beforehand
• We may take up to 8-weeks to provide a response but will provide weekly updates, so the customer is aware we are working to resolve the complaint.

We will:

• Document and report the complaint
• Determine if we need to attend the customers property where the goods have been installed
• Arrange an appointment to survey the property
• Interview staff/installers
• Gather evidence including photographs, measurements, quality of the installation and the products installed compared to the customer contract
• Involve third parties if required such as product manufacturers (informing the customer)
• Review and evaluate the information collated
• Take any necessary action, such as replace or repair products of the installation, staff training and feedback or disciplinary action
• Document our conclusions
• Follow-up.

Responsibility For The Policy  

The director and owner of the business as responsible for monitoring the policy on an annual basis.

Vijey Shakthi the director and owner is responsible for the overall policy and its reviews.