Trail has a built-in internal complaints register and processes to assist you manage complaints & feedback from your clients. This will help you with your compliance obligations moving forward.

For this function to work, you will need to have this activated for your Organisation (please email support@gettrail.com to know if you are unsure whether this is the case for your business).

When this feature within Trail is activated it will allow complaints to be lodged internally by your team or externally by clients or other people.

Before you can start receiving and handling complaints in Trail you will want to make sure it is set up properly to fit with the process your business will follow.

Navigate to your Compliance Settings tab to customise the complaints process for your business. Make sure you have set and considered the following: 

These settings will adjust how Trail's complaints module operates (e.g. names or timeranges to pull into templates):

Here you can select who your organisation's Compliance Officer is, all complaints will be assigned to them for final sign off before they can be closed within the system. It's important this member of your team is well trained in handling complaints, and understands the responsibilities of their role. 

When a new complaint is received, someone within the business will need to review them. This can be:

We suggest you choose a person to initially review complaints based on their competency and capacity to handle complaints. This will differ depending on the size and nature of your business. 

Information about your disputes resolution provider is made available to all complainants via both of the Compliance Email Templates so make sure this is correct.

It is also important to estimate how long you expect it will take for someone in your business to acknowledge a complaint and how long you expect it to take to resolve a complaint as these are used in the Complaint Acknowledgement email sent to clients when they lodge a complaint. Make sure these are reasonably achievable by your business. 

Note: Click here for more information on setting up email templates

There are two email templates used for emails sent to clients during the complaints process that can be customised to your liking:

The default wordings are standardised to help you meet your regulatory obligations. 

Only the assigned Compliance officer of your organisation is able to change the content of the email or add in any additional information you can do so by editing the related template. They will be able to find these 2 templates under the Email Template Settings:

Trail helps you to quickly assign linked buttons to your website - and there is one available for lodging a complaint.

This will link whoever accesses your website, to be able to lodge a complaint using this "Complaints" button - they do not need to have an account in Trail. This lodged complaint information links directly to Trail, entering into your complaints process in the prescribed format. 

Here is where to find this button - under Settings - General - Website Plugins - Complaints Button.
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Make any edits to its appearance (click "Save Button" to save these changes) - and you will find the button's HTML link ready to copy for your web designer to use!

If you have any questions about your compliance settings or the complaints process please get in touch by phone or by email at support@gettrail.com!