Resolving and Managing Complaints Records (Pt.8)

This article describes how to manage Complaint records and the process which can be followed to resolve them.

Complaint records can be taken through a series of stages to mark their progress. They can be printed or shared by email with interested parties (other iPassport users and distribution lists; an external email address cannot be entered) and it's possible to archive or delete them as required. These activities are managed from the Actions dropdown menu, which includes these options:

• Change OU
• Change Status
• Close/Reopen Complaint
• Delete this Complaint (cannot be undone)
• Print Complaint
• Send Complaint by Email
• Set as Inactive/Active (to archive)
• Start/Stop Progress

The options displayed depend on the user’s permissions and on the state of the Complaint record:

• Change OU requires the permission “Complaints:Change OU”
• Change Status, Start/Stop Progress and Close Complaint require the permissions “Complaints:Change Complaint Status” and “Complaints:Edit Complaints”; Reopen Complaint requires “Complaints:Change Complaint Status”
• Print Complaint and Send Complaint by Email require the permission “Complaints:Print Complaint”
• Set as Inactive/Active requires the permission “Complaints:Enable/Disable”
• Delete this Complaint requires the permission “Records:Delete Records”

An inactive Complaint record only offers Set as Active (plus Delete this Complaint); Change OU, Change Status, Start/Stop Progress, Print Complaint and Send Complaint by Email are not offered. A closed Complaint record offers Reopen Complaint but not Change Status or Start/Stop Progress.

Like all Actions dropdown menus across iPassport content, once you select one, you must click 'Go' to trigger it.

Stages of Complaint Records

When a Complaint record is first created, it will be labelled as 'Active'.  The first thing to do is to 'Start Progress' from the Actions dropdown menu, to mark the starting point of the process.  However, it is possible to set a 'Status' in the creation step and appropriate ones can be added for this purpose.  Progress can be stopped at any point if necessary and these events are logged in the 'Actions Taken' tab.  Both 'Start Progress' and 'Stop Progress' open a pop-up window where a 'Reason' must be entered; the reason is recorded with the logged event.  Progress cannot be started or stopped on an inactive or closed Complaint record.

Statuses can be created to reflect the activities that follow, and there is no specified order to log actions, create or update the risk assessment, or add contacts.

The status can be set by selecting 'Change Status' from the Actions dropdown menu.  The pop-up window also provides a 'manage' (spanner/wrench) icon, to create, edit, or delete Complaint statuses.  The spanner icon is only displayed to users with the permission “Complaints:Edit Complaint Statuses”; deleting a status requires “Complaints:Delete Complaint Statuses” and is not possible while any Complaint record uses that status.  Statuses can be given OU visibility settings, and the 'Change Status' list only offers the statuses visible to the Complaint record's OU.  Status changes require a comment in the field, 'Reason'.  This information is also logged in the 'Actions Taken' tab.

The title of the Complaint record will also display the state of progress and status.

When actions are logged as activities which need to be completed, 'general' tasks can be created from the 'Tasks' tab to assign duties to users involved.

Once a complaint record is deemed to be resolved and no further action is required, it can be closed with the Action 'Close Complaint'.  'Close Complaint' is only offered while progress is stopped: if progress has been started, select 'Stop Progress' first and 'Close Complaint' will then appear in the Actions dropdown menu.  It is possible to reopen a Complaint record if it needs to be revisited and while closed, the Action will toggle to 'Reopen Complaint'.

Previous step:

The previous article covers Managing Contacts in Complaints Records (Pt.7)