Improve handling of official complaints

[#1]

giffgaff has a defined complaints procedure. 

Either contact an agent or contact the email address given, and there will be a response within five days. 

That sounds simple enough, but let's consider what is not also said.

I would venture to suggest that people using this will tend to assume or at least hope that if they receive a message and reply to it, then even if it has taken 5 days for the first response, subsequent responses should be faster. 

Also, if the complaint says please review an agent case and gives a reference, the person making the complaint is entitled to hope that the handler will do so.

Thus, a handler response saying please give a phone number and a convenient time to call might be a bit insensitive when part of the problem is the SIM is not working.

If each subsequent complaint handler response is to take a week or more, then if 3 exchanges of messages are needed, that would come to almost a month. If the handler wants to start an argument based on the person not giving a phone number, is that reasonable? How many people whose mobile service is not working would be willing to sit by a landline for a week on the off chance of receiving a call from someone who seems to take typically a week to respond? Alternatively, would the complainant give a number where if they happened not to be in then a message could be left, and if so what would the message from giffgaff be, we called but you weren't there, so these delays are your fault?

I suggest that isn't good enough, and giffgaff needs to review and improve the way it deals with things like this. 

[#2]

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oldyorkie wrote:

Ooops! ... Maybe I should have explained a tad better ....?

I'm not being critical .. as I said, I see your point And I totally agree, the Educators get far too many requests to prompt from the forums ...

Clearly it is something that needs to be addressed by Firstsource and GG ...the SLA's must state something about a financial penallty of failure to meet them?? Most do...

What I was suggesting was contacting an Educator and possibly having a fact-finding discussion away from the forums?

I know you wouldn't be able to have all the information ...it's a private business contract afterall, but I can't see anything being done to speed the agent responses up until the SLA nears its renewal date and the the issues are put forward in the forthcoming review meetings.

It might be that you have a valid suggestion that wasn't put on the table when the SLA was last signed....you probably have

Perhaps a "step by step" of what to expect when you use the procedure could be incorporated somewhere in the gg guidelines that is derived from the SLA itself?

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To the part I've colour-highlighted: that's a possibility, but on the other hand they aren't entitled or obliged to give answers to all the questions that might be asked.

If for example someone contacts an educator and say I know someone who is having some problems, and who would be the best person to contact about this, the first couple of responses might be very sympathetic and helpful, and say that if this is still happening to your friend in a few days time then contact me and I'll try to chase it up.

They might then get an internal response which says we are already aware of some incidents like this, and are dealing with them. 

If the handling by the agents carries on being disappointing to the customer, the educators are then in a tricky position, as they can't take sides, and it may be outside their remit to take part at all if it starts to look like heading towards being a dispute. Thus they might find it tricky to respond the next time they get a message asking for further suggestions about how to make progress, so it might be on the lines of we know the agents are talking to you. 

Certainly, on the wider points of your whole post, it would be quite tricky to talk to the customer about a lot of that stuff, as there will be grey areas where it cannot get into involving discussion of internal commercial agreements. 

[#3]

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sloz wrote:

As there isnt any clearly defined idea in this thread, perhaps this should have been posted in the contribute forum.

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There is a very clearly defined idea here.

The risk of drawing out a complaints process for possibly a month is not good enough. Once a case has been opened, the subsequent company responses should be more prompt than several days apart.

Additionally, I'm wondering if having contact an agent as one of the defined complaint routes is helpful, given that the speed or other features of agent responses may be part of the complaint.

[#4]

@andy0

....my whole point being I don't think this is the correct place for this discussion.....

I wasn't going to come out and say direct, but I feel I must now.. the fact is this is a discussion more than an idea, so you would have been better served to put your point forward within the contribute section.

This just hi-lites the need for making the Ideas board only available to members once the discussion has been thrashed out - i.e. a fully fledged idea based on the discussions held. I'm not convinced your argument fits into that category.. sorry mate..

To quote you

.<<.There is a very clearly defined idea here.>> ----

<<The risk of drawing out a complaints process for possibly a month is not good enough. Once a case has been opened, the subsequent company responses should be more prompt than several days apart.

Additionally, I'm wondering if having contact an agent as one of the defined complaint routes is helpful, given that the speed or other features of agent responses may be part of the complaint.>>

Where is the clearly defined idea??

If you can provide an idea of a fix, and I'll gladly change my opinion..

[#5]

Maybe you have a point.

However on the other hand, if it only becomes a discussion in the contribute section, then there is no obligation for any of the staff to actually read it. 

[#6]

However on the other hand, if it only becomes a discussion in the contribute section, then there is no obligation for any of the staff to actually read it.

So the plan should be, as suggested

• Thrash it out in Contribute
• take on board members suggestions and view points
• agree on a plan of action between members within the thread
• THEN bring it to the ideas board

That way when the staff do see it - there is a clear opinion on what could be done to change things ?

[#7]

It seems unfortunate that this slighty related idea on response times has been 'parked':

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Submit-Great-giffgaff-Ideas/Automated-System-For-Agent-Reply-Wait-T...

I think that Giffgaff should make extra effort to give assurances on maximum timescale by which a response will be supplied.

Furthermore if a predicted response time elapses, an escalation process should kick in automatically, which emails the customer to inform them that it has been escalated, and alerts the agents that this query is overdue a response.

Sometimes things take longer than originally suggested (like Giffgaff's update on the unlimited data megathread) - and when full answers get delayed, the worst thing to do is do nothing.

Customers need reassurance that the support system is still active and that a query is being dealt with.

However none of that fixes the OP's issue of overall response times being too long if they are - and that being the case, this should be such an obvious issue to Giffgaff that I would hope and expect they have some plan in place to fix it already - whether that be investment in more staff or improved systems.

[#8]

Of course it would be entirely reasonable if one response said I need to contact a couple of people internally about this, which may take 3 or 4 days, so I hope to respond to you again with more details soon, but I'll get back to you anyway within a week.

That is the point of a response time being defined as five days, to deliver some substance. 

That five days should not be an excuse to say ok we really meant a working week, and so we don't need to even read the other party's message for nearly a week, and then ask for more details.

[#9]

giffgaff needs to set up an official contact number for users to contact them on i.e. about any complaints. recently i had problems with my bbm, however i had to wait 24hours for an response to this problem and sometime the email reply just tells you what you already know.

whereas an contact number is an much faster way to put in complaints or deal with any issues you may have.

nearly every other network has an contact number, so why hasn't giffgaff???.

Hit the yellow button if you agree with me that giff gaff need a contact number for any complaints or problems. 

[#10]

khan93 ... the whole idea of a contact phone number is diametrically opposed to giffgaffs online only business. I'm certain you will have done your research and that you knew this before you joined?

[#11]

mgb2.... Yes i know, but sometimes change is good. Im not sayin to move away from online giffgaff, but having an phone number just incase you need it to solve a problem immediately instead of waiting 24 hours would be an good addition. Online services would still be in place but a phone number added to this would allow members to express any compalints or problems verbally which will speed up replies for customers as verbally communicating. For example giff gaff is run by o2. o2 have alot of online support such as agents online just like giffgaff, but they also have an phone number just incase you need it to solve any problems immediately.