Note: Before you start using Trail to manage your complaints, read this article on customising your compliance settings.

One of the requirements for transitional licensing is having an internal complaints register and process. When this feature within Trail is activated it will allow complaints to be lodged internally by your users or externally by clients or other people. This will help you with your compliance obligations moving forward. 

Complaints can be lodged in a number of ways, making it easy for your clients, and your staff to follow a set process.

How a client lodges a complaint from the Client Portal

How to set up a complaints button on your Website
Read how to customise your complaints settings and create a button for your website here.

How to lodge a complaint as an adviser or assistant on behalf of a client
Similar to an opportunity, you can choose to lodge a complaint when creating an opportunity.

When a complaint is made the details of the person making the complaint are confirmed and information about the complaint can be filled in.

When the complaint is lodged the person who has made the complaint will be sent an acknowledgement email which can be customised in your email template settings.

Either the adviser or the user in charge of handling complaints will be notified that there has been a new complaint lodged based on notification settings and can get in contact with the client making the complaint to begin the process.

Complaints can be found in their own pipeline similar to other opportunities but unlike other opportunities you can not manually move a complaint between stages but must instead follow the correct process for handling and resolving the complaint.

When you access a complaint you will be taken to the complaint summary which provides information about the stage of the complaint and gives options to either reassign the complaint to another user, escalate the complaint, or begin the initial review of the complaint.

If your compliance officer escalates a complaint it will go to your dispute resolution scheme withing the pipeline.  If another user escalates a complaint it will be reassigned to your compliance officer.

When the review begins the person managing the complaint will be asked questions to decide if the complaint can be informally resolved and closed immediately or if further action is required.

After the initial questions, it must be decided if the complaint will be reassigned or escalated, or if it can be effectively handled by the user currently assigned to the complaint.

At this stage, further details about the nature of the complaint will be collected, and if further information is required from the complainant then there is an opportunity to record what is needed.

At each stage in the process there is an opportunity to reassign or escalate the complaint if appropriate.

The last stage of the process is to close the complaint and record any actions that have been taken to resolve the complaint and if the complainant is satisfied with the result. The complaint can be reassigned or escalated at this point or resolved if appropriate.

If someone who is not the compliance officer attempts to resolve the complaint it will be reassigned to the organisation’s compliance officer where they can review the complaint and resolve it if they are satisfied with how it has been handled.

In the reports section of the software, you can find a list of all complaints made and the status of each complaint which will allow you to review all past and active complaints made against the organisation.

A summary of any report can be viewed and downloaded from here.

With this feature you will be able to easily manage and resolve all complaints following a structured process and continue to meet your compliance obligations.