Handling complaints is part of core business for public organisations. The challenge is to do it well. This guide aims to help organisations receive, handle, and resolve complaints.
*This guide is currently under review and an updated version will be published soon.
Please note this guide contains references to the Australian/New Zealand Standard, Guidelines for complaint management in organizations (AS/NZS 10002:2014) which have been replaced with the Australian Standard, Guidelines for complaint management in organizations (ISO 10002:2018).
The Protected Disclosure Act 2012 has been superseded with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2012, a copy can be found here Public Interest Disclosures Act 2012 (legislation.vic.gov.au) .
This guide aims to help you and your organisation handle complaints well.
It outlines the guiding principles and practical steps involved in the three key stages of good complaint handling shown below.
You can use the advice in this guide to create or review the complaint handling system at your organisation, and to help you respond to individual complaints.
If you are working in the public sector today, you will probably need to deal with complaints at some point.
Members of the public rightly expect high quality, timely services from government and decisions that are transparent and fair.
Handling complaints is part of core business and good service delivery. The challenge for public sector agencies is to do it well.
Well-handled complaints offer real benefits. They can:
Complaints are free feedback about what people think of your agency’s services and decisions. They can highlight the need for changes to your practices, or the need to explain them to members of the public in a different way.
Poorly handled complaints have the opposite effect. They can:
The Victorian Ombudsman has over 40 years’ experience dealing with complaints about state government agencies and local councils. In many cases the people who approach our office are upset, not just about the agency’s decision or actions, but with the agency’s response to their complaint. Common issues include failure to respond to complaints at all, delays and poor communication.
This guide aims to share that experience to improve complaint handling across the public sector.
It reflects the revised Australian and New Zealand standard for complaint handling, Victoria’s public sector values and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic). You will find references to these and other resources to help you manage complaints.
This guide uses the terms ‘complaint’, ‘complainant’ and ‘complaint handling system’ to describe the work of handling complaints.
The Victorian Ombudsman’s preferred definition of a complaint is as follows.
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with:
The term ‘complainant’ is used to refer to a person, organisation or representative who makes a complaint.
The term ‘complaint handling system’ refers to all policies, procedures, practices, officers and resources an agency deploys to manage complaints.
Guiding principles – Good complaint handling systems enable complaints by:
This section outlines the practical steps that your organisation can take to enable complaints.
In our experience, organisations with the best complaint handling practices actively encourage and welcome feedback about their performance.
While none of us like to get negative feedback about our work, these organisations recognise that enabling complaints:
The steps in this section are the minimum standards the Victorian Ombudsman looks for when a person approaches us about the way an organisation dealt with their complaint.
A complaint handling policy demonstrates that your agency is committed to dealing with complaints.
A policy lays the foundation for good complaint handling by giving your officers information about how to respond to complaints well.
It also ensures all officers apply the same standards, regardless of where they work in your organisation.
Good complaint handling policies cover:
You can find an example policy at Appendix 1. It can be adapted to suit your agency including:
Organisations that are committed to complaint handling also take the time to build a culture that is open and receptive to feedback.
Members of the public want to be listened to and treated with respect when they have a problem. They are unlikely to feel confident about approaching your organisation if they get a defensive or unhelpful response when they contact your officers.
Leaders and managers in agencies can set the tone by:
Skilled, knowledgeable officers are the most valuable resource in any complaint handling system.
All officers in your organisation need at least to be aware of your policy and what to do if someone approaches them with a complaint. Induction and regular training is a good way to achieve this.
Your organisation also needs a range of specialist skills and personal qualities in its complaint handling officers. They include empathy, patience, resilience, problem solving, communication, investigation skills, the ability to remain impartial, knowledge of your organisation’s people and work, and the ability to work with vulnerable communities.
Complaint handling can be difficult and stressful at times and these officers need support to maintain a healthy, positive attitude. This can take the form of access to debriefing or support networks.
Tip: Training for complaint handlers
Complaint handlers can benefit from training in these areas:
Case study: A receptive culture?
In 2015 two Victorian newspapers ran stories about a departmental manager’s response to a complaint.
The complainant had reportedly emailed the department criticising some planned action.
The manager’s comments, intended for a colleague, reportedly described the email as ‘rubbish’ and said ‘I presume you will not respond back as this is a direct attack on our organisation and our staff. Delete it or file it.’
Instead of sending the comments to his colleague, the manager accidentally sent them to the complainant.
The newspapers quoted a departmental spokesperson as saying that the manager had apologised, and the agency ‘values its relationship with the community and considers seriously the feedback it receives’.
Source: The Age; Herald Sun
In order to complain, people need to know how to contact you. This can be achieved by:
Not everyone can make a written complaint or call your organisation in business hours.
We live in a diverse community where people have different communication preferences and needs. Barriers such as language, disability, homelessness or shift work can inhibit access to your agency.
You can make your complaint handling system accessible by:
Sophisticated complaint handling systems also recognise that accessibility is about more than means of communication.
Some parts of the community may be less likely to complain for cultural or other reasons. You can identify this by comparing the demographics of the people who use your services, and the demographics of those who complain, to see whether some groups are under-represented. Options include engaging with stakeholder and advocacy groups and outreach activities in under-represented communities.
People sometimes tell our officers that they have not complained to an organisation direct because they fear reprisal. This can be a particular problem where people depend on the organisation for their daily living needs.
You can make it clear in your complaint handling policy and public information that you do not tolerate reprisals against complainants. This can also be reinforced in training for officers.
Any evidence that a person has experienced detriment needs to be dealt with promptly.
Tip: Anonymous complaints
Members of the public sometimes seek to lodge complaints anonymously, or ask you not to disclose their identity.
People can have valid reasons for not wanting to disclose their identity. The Victorian Ombudsman accepts these complaints and deals with them on their merits.
We recognise that in some cases it is not practical to investigate a complaint if you cannot contact the complainant for further information or disclose their identity.
You can warn people about this in information about your complaint handling system so members of the public can consider their options.
Guiding principles – Good complaint handling systems respond to complaints by:
The responsibilities of the Victorian public sector are diverse and there is no ‘one size fits all’ response to complaints.
There are some practices, however, that are common to good complaint handling in every organisation. This section outlines these practices and how you can incorporate them in your work.
Every year the Victorian Ombudsman receives hundreds of complaints about delays in complaint handling by agencies.
These types of complaints can be avoided if you acknowledge and respond to complaints promptly.
The Victorian Ombudsman expects public organisations to respond to all complaints unless:
It is good practice to acknowledge complaints within 10 business days, unless the complaint is urgent and needs a faster response.
You can find an example acknowledgement letter at Appendix 2.
Not all complaints require the same level of investigation or priority.
It helps to ‘triage’ complaints at an early stage to determine their priority, and how and who should respond.
Factors to consider include:
As part of your assessment, you may need to speak to the complainant to clarify the details of the complaint and the outcome they are seeking.
If a complaint falls outside your organisation’s responsibilities, it is helpful to inform the complainant as soon as possible and refer them to other agencies that may be able to assist.
Tip: Is it a public interest disclosure?
Most agencies have a Public Interest Disclosure Coordinator who is nominated to:
A disclosure can be a report about:
If you believe the conduct contained in a complaint could be a public interest disclosure, you must refer the complainant to your agency's Public Interest Disclosure Coordinator without delay. If your agency does not have a Coordinator, you can refer the complainant to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).
You can find out more information about public interest disclosures on IBAC's website
Tip: Disputes about responsibility
In some cases there may be confusion or a dispute about which agency is responsible for a complaint.
The Victorian Ombudsman is sometimes contacted by members of the public who have been referred back and forth between two agencies, both of which claim the other agency is responsible. It is understandably frustrating for complainants to be caught in the middle of these disputes.
It is better practice for the agencies to reach agreement between themselves, rather than leaving it to the complainant to resolve. You may need the complainant’s permission to share their personal information with the other agency prior to discussing their complaint.
Case study: Who is responsible?
A local resident complained to his council that surface water was not draining from a reserve behind his property causing damage to his garage. The local council advised the complainant that the matter was the responsibility of another government agency. The other government agency told the complainant it was the responsibility of the council.
The Victorian Ombudsman investigated the complaint to establish which agency was responsible for maintaining the reserve and the drain located on it. All parties met onsite and agreed to engage an independent surveyor to establish the cause of the damage.
In this case, it would have been preferable for the council and agency to engage with each other to reach an agreement about how the complaint would be handled. Had they done so, the complaint could have been resolved without escalation to the Ombudsman.
Source: Victorian Ombudsman
The most effective and efficient complaint handling systems use a tiered approach:
Frontline complaint resolution by the officer or area delivering the service is usually the quickest and most effective way to resolve the majority of complaints.
You can encourage and empower frontline officers to resolve complaints through your agency’s complaint handling policy, and by investing in training and resources for officers.
There will be some complaints that need to be escalated for investigation. Your agency’s complaint handling policy can spell out when complaints should be escalated. This might include where:
If the complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome of this process, the matter can be escalated further, either within the agency or to an external body.
It is good practice to explain your complaint handling process to complainants at the start so they know:
This promotes transparency and ensures the complainant knows what to expect.
In some cases it can help to confirm your advice in writing, for example where the complainant’s expectations are unrealistic.
Tip: Managing expectations
Dissatisfaction with complaint handling often stems from differing expectations about how a complaint will be handled or the likely outcome. When you first contact the complainant, it is useful to:
If you are unable to meet your agency’s standards for any reason, speak to the complainant and explain the reasons. Complainants are less likely to contact a body like the Victorian Ombudsman if you keep them informed about what is happening with their complaint.
In our experience, complaints get harder to manage the longer they stay open. Complainants can become frustrated with delays. Their expectations of a significant outcome sometimes increase, or they can start to raise new issues.
The Victorian Ombudsman expects agencies to respond to straightforward complaints within 28 days.
If this is not possible because the complaint is complex or needs more detailed investigation, give the complainant an expected timeframe and update them on progress regularly.
It is advisable to review complaints that are older than 28 days and escalate them if necessary to expedite a resolution.
If the complainant does raise new issues, they need to be assessed on their merits. You may need to treat them as a new complaint to avoid delaying your process.
Complaints usually involve personal information about:
This information needs to be managed in accordance with relevant privacy laws.
As a general rule, the Victorian Ombudsman would expect agencies to:
For many complainants, being treated fairly during the complaint handling process is just as important as the outcome. This guide has already discussed some of the ways you can demonstrate fairness, including protecting complainants from detriment, being transparent about your processes, and protecting privacy.
You can also promote fairness by:
Tip: ‘Foreshadowing’ outcomes
Complainants often appreciate an opportunity to discuss or comment on your preliminary findings before you finalise their complaint.
This promotes fairness by giving them another opportunity to be heard. It can also lead to better outcomes:
Your officers are also entitled to be treated respectfully if someone complains about them. Subject to any legislative restrictions like those in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2012 (Vic), officers are entitled to be:
The focus of the complaint handling process should be about resolving the problem, not assigning blame. Any disciplinary processes should be separate from the complaint handling process.
When the Victorian Ombudsman looks at complaints about public sector agencies, we do not just look at whether the agency’s processes and decisions comply with its laws and policies. We also consider whether the agency’s actions are fair and whether they comply with Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act .
The Charter is a law that requires public authorities in Victoria (including private companies performing functions on behalf of government) to act compatibly with 20 human rights when delivering services or making decisions.
It is unlawful under the Charter for a public authority to fail to consider relevant human rights when making a decision. Any limitation placed upon a person’s human rights has to be in accordance with the law.
Your handling of a complaint is more likely to withstand scrutiny if you ask yourself the following questions:
You may also be asked to demonstrate that you thought about:
The following case studies illustrate the importance of considering fairness and the Charter.
Case study: Considering fairness
A 22-year-old migrant to Australia required urgent medical treatment and was transported to hospital by ambulance. As he did not have a Centrelink or similar concession, he was charged a fee of $924 for this trip. His employment ceased shortly after and he requested that the fee be waived on the basis of financial difficulties.
The agency refused to waive the fee on the basis that he was not a concession or health care card holder at the relevant time. He had been granted Centrelink assistance one week after the invoice for the ambulance service was issued.
Although the agency had acted in accordance with its policy for waiving fees, the Victorian Ombudsman considered it had not exercised its discretion in the spirit of the policy to assist those in financial need. Following enquiries, the agency agreed to waive the fee.
Source: Victorian Ombudsman
Case study: Considering fairnessA homeless person with a learning disability had driven a friend, who also had a disability, to a conference at a local church. He parked in a designated disabled parking bay, displaying a valid permit.
The driver knew he needed to move the car after two hours, which he did. However, a trailer was blocking the only other disabled parking bay. He had to stay with his friend at the conference, so he parked in a permit zone.
While parked in the permit zone, he received an $87 parking fine. He asked the agency twice for an internal review of the matter. The agency declined both times because a disabled parking permit did not allow a person to park in a permit zone.
The agency said it was acting within the law.
Normally, this matter would proceed to court, but in this instance, we contacted the agency because it wasn’t reasonable to expect this person to take legal proceedings when he was homeless and had a learning disability.
The council in question had acted within its powers: technically, the car was parked illegally.
We asked the council to reconsider its position on the fine in light of the driver’s circumstances, and it agreed to do so.
Source: Victorian Ombudsman
Providing clear reasons for decisions displays fairness, transparency and accountability. It helps the complainant understand why you made your decision, whether or not you upheld their complaint.
When we make enquiries with agencies about complaints, we often find they provide us with convincing explanations for their actions. If this information had been communicated to the complainant, they might not have escalated the complaint to us.
As a general rule, the Victorian Ombudsman expects public sector agencies to provide an outcome letter for all complaints where an investigation has been undertaken.
Good outcome letters:
You can find an example of a letter that takes this approach at Appendix 3.
Tip: Template letters
Public sector agencies often use template letters to respond to common issues. While these letters can save time and resources, they are also the source of many complaints to the Victorian Ombudsman. Template letters that are not customised to the complainant’s specific concerns and circumstances:
If your agency uses template letters, it is good practice to tailor them to each complaint.
Case study: better communication
A complainant alleged that a government agency failed to investigate his concerns about occupational health and safety in a theatre he had recently performed in.
The Victorian Ombudsman made enquiries with the agency. It provided evidence to show that it had investigated the concerns, including conducting an inspection on the same day it received the complaint. It had formed a view that remedial action was not required.
We advised the complainant that on the basis of this evidence, we were satisfied that the agency had taken appropriate action in response to his complaint.
If the agency had communicated better with the complainant about its investigation and outcomes, he may not have felt the need to escalate his complaint to us.
Source: Victorian Ombudsman
To be accountable, public sector agencies need to be prepared to admit mistakes and correct them.
It is appropriate to offer a remedy if your agency’s decision, or the process leading up to the decision, was unfair or could have been communicated better.
Options for redress include:
The remedy should be fair and practical and proportionate to the seriousness of the issue.
Case study: a fair remedy
An agency had deducted a payment plan instalment from a complainant’s bank account twice. It acknowledged the mistake but told her it wouldn’t process the refund until it had a number of similar requests, so its finance department could process them all at once.
The complainant told the Victorian Ombudsman she was a single mother on a pension and now had only $14 left in her bank account.
We made enquiries and the agency agreed to issue a cheque that day and speak to its bank to speed up the cheque’s clearance.
Source: Victorian Ombudsman
As complaint handlers, we are also accountable for our decisions and should submit ourselves to appropriate scrutiny.
Good complaint handling systems allow complainants to request an internal review of the complaint outcome. Your complaint handling policy can document the process.
At the Victorian Ombudsman, we ask complainants to:
Reviews are conducted by senior experienced officers who have not been involved in the matter previously. This ensures the process is as independent as possible.
In appropriate cases, you might also consider using alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation, to try to resolve the complaint.
The Victorian Ombudsman expects agencies to inform complainants of any external avenues of complaint or appeal if they remain dissatisfied with the outcome. These include:
You can also include information about internal and external avenues for review in information about your complaint handling system.
Tip: Referring complainants to the Victorian Ombudsman
We recommend the following text if you are referring a complainant to the Victorian Ombudsman:
If you are unhappy with the outcome of this process, you may wish to complain to the Victorian Ombudsman by completing the online complaint form at www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/make-a-complaint or by calling (03) 9613 6222 or 1800 806 314 in regional areas.
People can be angry and frustrated when they make a complaint, sometimes for good reasons.
One of the skills involved in complaint handling is dealing with these emotions, while also maintaining a reasoned, evidence-based approach to the complaint.
In a small number of cases the complainant’s conduct can, because of its nature or frequency, raise health or safety issues for officers, or consume a disproportionate amount of your agency’s resources to the detriment of other complainants. Organisations dealing with these issues may find our Dealing with Challenging Behaviour guide useful.
The Victorian Ombudsman does not expect our officers, or officers in other public agencies, to tolerate behaviour that is offensive, abusive, threatening or consumes disproportionate resources.
The guide lists strategies for managing these situations. They aim to manage the impact of the conduct, while recognising that the complainant may still have a valid grievance that needs to be addressed.
We recommend that agencies:
Tip: How to avoid escalating conflict
Dealing with people who are angry and frustrated can be challenging for complaint handlers. In these situations, it can help to:
Tip: Limiting contact
When other strategies for managing unreasonable complainant conduct have failed, agencies may consider limiting the complainant’s contact with the agency. Options include limiting:
Before limiting contact, we would expect agencies to:
Your agency is ultimately responsible for all complaints about your services, irrespective of whether those services are delivered by you or a third party contractor.
You can set out how you manage complaints about contractors in your complaint handling policy.
Some agencies, particularly in the community services sector, are required by legislation to oversee third party service providers.
In other cases, it is still good practice to monitor the way contractors deal with complaints and have clear oversight of their complaint handling process. This includes:
Guiding principles – Good complaint handling systems use complaint information to:
Your agency will get the most value from complaint handling when you use information from complaints to improve services for the community as a whole.
Complaints are a form of feedback about your agency’s decisions and services, just like client and community surveys or evaluation reports. By linking your agency’s complaint handling system with quality management processes, you can promote accountability and identify where you need to make changes.
This section looks at the practical steps involved.
Unless you have an effective system for recording complaints, it will be difficult to harness complaint information to improve your services.
A central database is the best way for officers to record and track complaints, regardless of where they work in your agency.
The database can suit your agency’s size and resources and the number of complaints you receive. Smaller agencies that receive few complaints might use a spreadsheet. Larger agencies that receive many complaints may need specialised case management software, or to integrate complaint handling into existing customer service systems.
Your officers will need to know when and how to record complaints so there is consistent practice across your agency.
The Victorian Ombudsman encourages agencies to record as many complaints as possible. Our preferred definition of a complaint, which is set out in the terms used in this guide, covers any expression of dissatisfaction, regardless of how or to whom it is made.
The more complaints you capture, the more representative your data will be, and the more information you will have about what people think about your services.
Tip: What to record
It is good practice to record the following information for every complaint:
Analysing complaint information regularly will help you identify areas where your agency’s services may need to improve.
It is useful to consider:
It is good practice to provide quarterly reports to senior managers about complaints, along with any recommendations about how to improve services. It is also good practice to report on complaints in your annual report.
Care needs to be taken when interpreting complaint data. An increase in complaint numbers following a change in your agency’s complaint handling practices may show that your complaint handling system is working well, not that service levels have dropped.
Your agency’s complaint information can also be used to assess and improve your complaint handling system.
Options for monitoring performance include:
You can show you are committed to dealing with complaints by publicising your performance against your key performance indicators, and any service improvements you have made as a result of complaints.
Tip: KPIs for complaint handling
This guide shows that a well-handled complaint is made up of many elements. Your key performance indicators could measure:
Leaders and managers can demonstrate commitment to good complaint handling by monitoring the performance of their agency’s system. They may need to change resources, systems and training from time to time to ensure complaints are handled well.
The Victorian Ombudsman recommends that agencies conduct regular in-depth reviews of their complaint handling system. This will ensure that your complaint handling system remains effective and up to date with good practice. The review might consider:
The following publications were referred to in developing this guide. They are recommended reading for officers with responsibility for complaint handling.
Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and Victorian Ombudsman, Investigations guide: conducting internal investigations into misconduct, June 2016 - no longer available
New South Wales Ombudsman, Effective complaint handling guidelines , 2nd edition, December 2010 - updated 2017.
Ombudsman Western Australia, Guidelines on complaint handling , revised 2017
Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities
Victorian Government, Victorian Government accessible communication guidelines 2014, superseded by Accessibility guidelines for government communications , 2019
Victorian Ombudsman, Councils and complaints – a good practice guide, February 2015 - no longer available.
Victorian Ombudsman, Managing unreasonable complainant conduct practice manual, 2nd edition, May 2012 - superseded by Dealing with Challenging Behaviour , 2018
Victorian Public Sector Commission, Public sector values
How to use this document
This model policy is intended for use as a guide only. Organisations are encouraged to tailor it to suit their individual circumstances. Suggested wording and tips are in italics and/or brackets.
Title and version number
Date of Charter of Human Rights review
Date of approval
[Review complaint handling system regularly, including procedures and key performance indicators]
Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 Freedom of Information Act 1982
Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Act 2011
Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014
Public Interest Disclosure Act 2012
Insert all related policies, for example:
Customer service policy/charter
Public interest disclosure policy
Employee code of conduct
Conflict of interest policy, etc.
In the introduction, organisations can:
This policy includes … [summarise what is in this document].
This policy aims to:
This policy is based on seven principles.
This policy applies to all organisation staff. It also applies to third party contractors carrying out services on the organisation’s behalf.
Complaint: an expression of dissatisfaction with the quality of an action taken, decision made, or service provided by an organisation or its contractor, or a delay or failure in providing a service, taking an action, or making a decision by an organisation or its contractor.
[Define any other key terms that your agency uses, including those closely related to ‘complaint’, such as ‘service request’, ‘comments’ or ‘feedback’]
Frontline staff
Managers and directors
Chief Executive Officer
Third party contractors
[For each party, enter a general description of their role and responsibilities within the complaint handling system]
A person can make a complaint in a number of ways.
| Mail: | [Insert name of organisation and postal address] |
| Telephone: | [Insert telephone number] |
| Email: | [Insert email address] |
| In person: | [Insert locations] |
| Fax: | [Insert fax number] |
| Internet: | [Insert web address. If you have an online feedback form, include instructions on how to access it from the homepage] |
Anyone who has been affected by a decision or action (including a failure to make a decision or take action) can make a complaint.
[Detail the processes/services the agency has in place to assist people with additional needs to make a complaint]
We accept and respond to anonymous complaints, provided we have received enough information to do so.
We take a four-tiered approach to complaint handling, as follows:
[Tailor this section to your individual procedures]
[Identify the staff member/s who are responsible for internal reviews – an internal review should be escalated to a staff member not involved in the original decision/action/investigation]
[Detail internal review process and timeframes]
An outcome letter signed by the senior officer responsible for the internal review will be provided to the complainant at the conclusion of every internal review.
The outcome letter will advise the complainant of any avenues of external review available in relation to the matter, such as the Victorian Ombudsman.
We recognise that we retain a level of responsibility for services carried out by contractors on our behalf.
[Consider whether you will allow contractors to respond to complaints directly.
When deciding, consider whether you have (or can put in place) appropriate oversight mechanisms for any complaint handling carried out by contractors.
If contractors handle complaints, provide details of any oversight mechanisms and other requirements the contractor will be subject to].
If a complainant is not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint, he or she can ask the agency to review the decision.
All outcome letters written by contractors in relation to complaints will include the name and contact details of an agency staff member to whom the complainant may escalate their complaint if they are not satisfied with the outcome the contractor has provided.
Complaints about allegations of corrupt conduct
Where a complaint involves allegations of corrupt conduct, it will be handled in accordance with the [insert name of policy for handling public interest disclosures].
Where we have found that we have made an error, we will take steps to redress the situation.
Possible remedies include, but are not limited to [list the remedies and who is authorised to offer them eg
Where we identify an error, we will consider offering a genuine apology to the complainant, in addition to any other remedies offered, irrespective of whether the complainant specifically requests this.
When gathering information to respond to a complaint, we will only:
All complaints are recorded in our [complaint database].
[Insert process for recording complaints]
We analyse our complaint data and provide [annual/more frequent] reports to [insert details of relevant parties to report to] on how we can reduce complaints and improve services.
Senior management is responsible for acting on the recommendations in these reports.
We record the following information for each complaint:
Any queries regarding the recording of complaints should be directed to [insert name of responsible officer].
To measure our performance, we have the following key performance indicators:
[Insert KPIs associated with complaint handling. These KPIs may be related to:
We will report against our complaint handling key performance indicators in our annual report, where we will also detail any service improvements made as a result of complaints received.
[The New South Wales Ombudsman’s Managing unreasonable complainant conduct practice manual includes guidance for managing unreasonable complainant conduct, which agencies can tailor to their individual circumstances.]
This is an example of an acknowledgement letter for a complaint.
Dear Mr Citizen
Your complaint about your licence application
Thank you for your email dated [date] about the department’s decision not to approve your application for a licence.
I am considering your complaint and will contact you again when more information is available.
If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me on [phone number].
Customer Service Officer
This is a fictional letter that incorporates the elements of a good outcome letter, and takes a receptive attitude to feedback. Remember there is no ‘one size fits all’ response to every complaint, and tailor your letters to suit each complaint.
Dear Ms Citizen
Your complaint about your fine
Thank you again for your email dated [date] about the service you received from one of our enforcement officers and her refusal to revoke your fine.
You complained that the officer refused to withdraw the fine even though you provided evidence that you did not commit the offence, and that she was rude and unhelpful.
We welcome feedback about our service and I would like to thank you for taking the time to contact us.
After reading your email, I considered the Infringements Act 2006 (Vic) which sets out the law on infringements, and our internal policies. I also spoke to the officer involved.
Unfortunately our enforcement officers are not able to revoke fines once they have been issued. The enforcement officer advised me that she was trying to explain this to you, and did not intend to be rude or unhelpful.
The senior review officers in our Appeals section can review and revoke fines, and I have forwarded your letter to them for consideration. If you have any additional evidence to provide, you can send it to the Appeals section by writing to [address] or emailing [email address].
I hope this resolves your concerns about what happened. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me on [phone number].
If you are not happy with my response, you can seek an internal review by writing to our Chief Executive Officer. Alternatively you may wish to complain to the Victorian Ombudsman at ombudsman.vic.gov.au/make-a-complaint or by calling (03) 9613 6222 or 1800 806 314 in regional areas.
Customer Service Officer