Feedback configuration management overview
The process of feedback management has a number of contributory factors that need to be configured at the outset in order to inform daily activities, operations and functions. These configuration components enable the housing organisation to define specific parameters in line with their own procedures and customer care policy. Additional values and attributes can be appended to the records at any time, as required, although maintaining comprehensive information from the start will reap its own rewards. There are several key areas that fall under the category of feedback configuration management: escalation rule maintenance, task maintenance and stage maintenance.
Feedback Escalation Rule Maintenance - All feedback activities within the control of the housing organisation, both directly and indirectly, can be service level driven and form an integral part of a wider Service Level Agreement (SLA). Escalation rules define the automatic events to be triggered in the instance where a task exceeds the SLA target, or reaches a predefined warning period. The escalation process would typically notify the case or task owner, and potentially members of a stakeholder group using customised communication templates. The escalation process is not just a one-off exercise but rather subsequent follow-on rules can be defined and triggered in the event that a task has stagnated beyond a defined period. Open tasks can therefore be continually tracked and actively progressed through to a successful outcome.
Feedback Task Maintenance - A feedback task is a specific activity that must be undertaken as an outcome of customer comments received in respect of any aspect of service provided by the housing organisation from which a case has been generated. A discrete task could be, say, to telephone the complainant, send an acknowledgement letter, liaise with a contractor or arrange a follow-up meeting; indeed any single event that will help to structure and define the workflow of a case. All feedback tasks activated as a consequence of raising a new case can be service level driven and linked to escalation rules, such that a defined process is initiated in the event that their progression falls behind agreed targets. Within each feedback task, there are three key components of SLA compliance tracking: amber warning period, follow-on escalation and target completion exceeded.
Feedback Stage Maintenance - A robust complaints handling procedure reflects a housing organisation's commitment to valuing complaints. Such procedures must seek to resolve customer dissatisfaction as close as possible to the point of service delivery, achieved by thorough, impartial and fair investigations that will result in evidence-based decisions on the facts of each case. Typically, feedback case scenarios are segmented into stages, which may be used to define set milestones within the overall progression path, or to reflect the escalation transition points. For instance, all formal complaints may be divided into two distinct stages: Frontline Resolutions - For issues that are straightforward and easily resolved, requiring little or no investigation; and Investigations - For issues that have not been resolved at the frontline stage or that are complex, serious or potentially ‘high risk’. Each stage must contain a series of tasks, setting out the actions to be completed by the current case owner, and stages may be linked together such that the completion of one stage automatically activates the next.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of feedback configuration management, including: