Managing booking complaint

Managing booking complaints 

We understand that things don’t always run smoothly. OctopusPro helps you handle issues and complaints promptly and efficiently. It allows you to quickly view and auto-assign new complaints, see complaints status, and resolve issues with user-configured dashboards. It allows you to open and close complaints and follow up with automated responses to ensure that all complaints are resolved promptly and professionally. 

So, if a customer lodges a complaint against one of your bookings, as an admin user, you can add it to the booking and manage it easily. You will receive a notification when the complaint has been added. You can then view the complaint and discuss it with the office and/or customer.

Table of contents

Adding a complaint to a booking as an admin user 

When logged in as an admin user from the web view, go to Bookings > All bookings

On the booking list page, click on the booking you wish to add a complaint to. Then, on the booking view page, click on the Actions button, then click on Add Complaint 

On the pop-up window, tick the To Follow checkbox if the complaint is still to follow, and has not been resolved. Then, select the Deferred Date of the complaint from the calendar, which is the date the complaint will take to be resolved. 

After that, add your complaint in the Comment field. Click on Submit to add the complaint.

After clicking on submit, a complaint will be added with a complaint number and you will be redirected to the complaint details page. 

A Complaint Acknowledgement pop-up email will appear if you wish to notify your customer of their booking complaint click on Send. The purpose of this email is to let your customers know you have acknowledged the receipt of their complaint and to let them know you are working on resolving their complaint. 

Viewing a complaint for a booking as an admin user 

You can view your complaints whenever you like. If you receive a notification of a new complaint, you should click on the notification to view the complaint details. But if you want to view any complaint at any time, you can do so by following the below steps:

From the admin portal web view, click on Bookings > All Bookings 

Click on the booking you wish to view the complaint of. On the booking view page, scroll down to the discussion board for the booking, and click on Complaints, to view all the complaints submitted for that booking. 

Click on the complaint to view the full details of the complaint. You can also edit or delete the complaint from the Complaint Action icons.

Or, you can also view the complaints submitted from Feedback’s page.

When logged in as an admin user, from your sidebar menu click on Feedback

Click on the complaint status you wish to view. For example, if you wish to view all the New complaints, click on New 

You will be redirected to the complaints list page, where you will be able to click on any complaint to view its full details.

How to close a resolved complaint

After the complaint has been submitted to a booking, you can mark the complaint as closed after resolving it. To do so, go to Feedback > In Progress from your sidebar menu 

On the complaint list page, click on the actions button of the complaint you wish to close. 

Then, click on Close

A Popup window will appear, including the complaint discussion. Add a comment in the empty field and click on Close. You can control the visibility of the discussion by selecting who can view it from the dropdown. 

If you wish to notify your customers of any added comments, select the customer name. After clicking on Close, the booking complaint status will be marked as closed.

How to reopen a closed complaint

In the case that you have closed a complaint and for any given reason wanted to reopen that complaint, you can easily do so with a few simple steps. Go to Feedback > Closed from your sidebar menu. 

On the complaint list page, click on the actions button of the complaint you wish to reopen. 

Then, click on Reopen.

A Popup window will appear, including the complaint discussion. Add a comment in the empty field and click on Reopen. You can control the visibility of the discussion by selecting who can view it from the dropdown. If you wish to notify your customers of any added comments, select the customer name. After clicking on Reopen, the complaint status will be marked as reopened.

How to directly contact a customer regarding their complaint?

The system makes it quick and easy for a user to contact a customer regarding their complaint. To do this, from your sidebar menu, go to Feedback > All complaints 

On the complaint overview, click one of the contact icons below the customer’s name to email them one of the complaint default templates, send them an SMS, or directly call them. 

How to directly contact a fieldworker regarding a complaint?

The system makes it quick and easy for a user to contact a fieldworker regarding a complaint submitted to a booking they were assigned to. To do this, from your sidebar menu, go to Feedback > All complaints 

On the complaint overview, click one of the contact icons below the fieldworker’s name to email them one of the complaint default templates, send them an SMS, or directly call them. 

You can also add a comment on the discussion board where they will be able to see it.

Customizing templates used for communicating with customers regarding their complaints

The system has default templates sent out to customers for complaints, which you can easily customize to your preference to fit your business/brand tone of voice. 

Automated complaint emails can help increase customer satisfaction and retention. It can help you show your customers that you appreciate them, and help you maintain a positive business reputation by resolving complaints and keeping your customers constantly updated of their complaint status. 

Accessing/editing these templates:

To view the default templates, from your sidebar menu go to Settings > Communications > Templates & Canned Responses 

Click on Emails, and from the search bar on the right type in “Complaint”

You will be able to view all the email templates related to complaints. Click on the template you wish to edit or customize. 

Types of default email templates available:

Complaint acknowledgement:

This email template is to notify your customer that you have received and acknowledged their complaint and will be working on resolving it. 

If desired, you can edit the text of the email to your requirements. 

Send complaint details:

If you need to remind or inform your customer of their complaint details, including the complaint number, complaint type, complaint comment, and the complaint discussion board, you an send your customer this template. 

If desired, you can edit the text of the email to your requirements.

Final complaint resolution:

If a complaint has been received from your customer, as a final complaint resolution, you can send this email template to let your customer know that you have received and resolved their complaint and that nothing can be done further in their case. 

If desired, you can edit this email template and add your own text or message.

Open complaints reminder:

To remind your fieldworkers of open complaints they have received and are yet to acknowledge, you can send them this template to remind them of the open complaints. 

If desired, you can edit this email template and add your own text or message.

Viewing complaints as a fieldworker from the fieldworker app 

Fieldworkers can view complaints added to the bookings they are assigned to. To view a complaint as a fieldworker from the app, go to Feedback from the sidebar menu. 

To view the details of a complaint, the fieldworker can click on it.

When the complaint status is To do, the fieldworker will be able to view the complaint and add a comment to the complaint discussion board, which will be visible to the customer and admin user.

When the complaint status is In Progress, the fieldworker can mark the complaint as resolved and add a comment explaining how the complaint was resolved. The complaint status will then turn to Awaiting approval and the admin user will then have to approve first, and then close the complaint.

Creating custom statuses for complaints

With complaint statuses, you can easily control all complaints knowing which complaints you need to follow up with. When it comes to managing customer complaints, it’s important that all users are aware of the status of a complaint, in order to provide an effective solution to the customer. A complaint status lets users know the current situation of the complaint and helps organize your complaints into different categories.  Once you change the status of a complaint, it will automatically be moved to the correct folder under the Feedback tab in the main menu. 

OctopusPro comes with a set of default complaint statuses, but you can add more if needed. 

New: New complaints that have not yet been dealt with.

In Progress: Complaints that are in the process of being resolved.

Reopened: Complaints that have been reopened and require action.

Awaiting Approval: Complaints that have been marked as resolved by the fieldworker but have not yet been approved by the office.

Closed: Complaints that have been resolved, approved, and are now closed.

Users can select a status from our suggested status or a list personalized by you. To create a new complaint status:

From your sidebar menu, go Settings > Communications > Feedback & Rating  

Then, click on the + tab on the right side of the page.

Enter the status you wish to add, you can also change the color of the status by picking a custom color. Click on save to add the custom status. 

When a complaint is placed on this status, it will change to this color.

Categorizing complaints by creating complaint types 

A Complaint type gives a general overview of the nature of a complaint to users. Create a list of different types of complaints that can be made by users. You may also want to include another option for complaints that do not fall under one of the options you have created. 

Complaint types help you categorize and quickly see what the issue is for each complaint when browsing all complaints. Complaint types can be for example:

  • Damage Caused
  • Unsatisfactory Job
  • Late Service

To create a new complaint type, go to Settings > Communications > Feedback & Rating 

Click on Complaint types

Then, click on the + tab on the right side of the page. 

Enter the complaint type you wish to add, and then click on save.

After adding complaint types, you can then select one of these types when creating a new complaint for a booking.

After adding a type to your complaint, you can filter complaints by each complaint type. To do that, on your complaint list page, select a type from the dropdown, to filter all complaints with that type selected.

What happens when you have open complaints?

Once you add a complaint to a booking, it automatically withholds the payment to the assigned fieldworkers until the complaint has been marked as closed by the admin user. 

In order to pay the fieldworker from the fieldworker booking summary report, the admin user will need to either manually release the withheld payment or close/resolve the open complaint.

For more information please visit Octopuspro user guide, and subscribe to our youtube channel.

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