Follow this step-by-step guide when dealing with a complain of any size.

1. Complaint received - Assess the severity of the complaint

i. Who is making the complaint?

ii. Who or what is the complaint about?

iii. What happened?

iv. How has this affected the business?

v. How has this affected the students, group leaders, team, external staff?

2. Assess the urgency of the complaint

i. How quick does the response need to be?

ii. Is this something you personally can resolve?

iii. Do you need to raise it to the area manager?

3. Resolve the matter in the most appropriate way, and inform the complainant of the action taken

i. Informally in person – minor issues and passing complaints – this is the optimum and preferred way to resolve most complaints not outlined in ii – iv below.

ii. Formally in person (either private or with both involved parties) - welfare/severe situations

iii. Via email – external clients

iv. Via formal letter - welfare / severe situations  

For 3i, the area manager can be updated after resolution. For items 3ii – 3iv you should speak to your Area Manager before investigation or resolution. 

4. Assess the risk of the complaint repeating in the future?

i. Is the problem preventable?

ii. What steps can we take to prevent the problem from reoccurring?

5. Ensure the resolution satisfies all of the following: 

i. The complainant – are they happy with the outcome?

ii. The business – does it improve our reputation?

iii. The client – does it improve business relations and client experience?

6. Document the complaint in the handover diary, in an email to the Area Manager, and in the Record of Feedback and Complaints spreadsheet available on the Staff Drive.   

• Always listen without judgement or argument

• Assure them that you take the matter seriously and that you will investigate the complaint.

• Assure the complainant that you will let them know more information when you have addressed the complaint – this must happen within 48 hours.

• The students, their parents, the group leaders, and the clients are all to be kept as happy as possible. If you think your resolution is not satisfactory for any of these groups, speak to your area manager before resolving the issue. 

• Follow up every complaint with a resolution meeting/letter/email. This shows that you have listened, that you acted on their complaint, and that you have resolved the situation professionally – this must happen within 5 days, sooner rather than later. 

• A complaint is a negative trait, and in order to satisfy the complainant, it is often not enough to return to the status quo, but to exceed their expectations or improve their experience further. This may be directly related to the complaint or added as an addition to their experience at a later date. Either way, they must be informed at the resolution meeting. 

• Never promise anything when the complaint is made, it may not be possible to fulfil that promise, which would then only make things worse. Tell them that you understand their concern and will contact them when you have investigated. 

Below is a breakdown of the types of complaints you may come across, and from whom they come. 

Students

All complaints from students should be dealt with, where possible, by the Welfare Manager. However, it is the responsibility of all managers to ensure that problems are dealt with in a timely manner. 

Student complaints may cover a wide range of problems including complaints about activities and how they are operated, other students, their room, Language in Action staff members including the teaching team, their group leaders, the facilities team or their overall experience. 

When handling a complaint from a student it is important to ensure that you stick to the safeguarding rules in place at all times. This includes speaking to students in an open room or in the company of another, as well as speaking to them in an appropriate, professional manner. Best practice is to have their group leader present for all discussion, no matter how small.

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Group Leaders

Group leaders are likely to complain about many aspects of their experience that are out of your control including their perception about an excursion, travel times, members of the public. This does not mean that there is nothing you can do to improve the situation. Listen to their concerns and tell them that you will endeavour to ensure that the situation is improved for future groups. Remember, this might not be possible for the same week, programme or year. 

Other complaints may be similar to those of the students and may relate to your team or the facilities team at the school or accommodation. 

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Facilities and external contractors

Reception managers, catering teams, cleaning teams and staff members from attractions or external activities may contact you with a complaint. It is important to ensure that you remain professional at all times with all our clients. 

Complaints may include unruly students, damage to property, disruption to their other clients, and unacceptable working conditions as a result of Language in Action services. Complaints from external clients, and therefore people you may have little day-to-day contact with, can be difficult to manage, but remember that your Area Manager is always available, and will often have an established business relationship with the client. 

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Team members

Your team work long hours, and often work in difficult, stressful, or unfamiliar situations, and with unfamiliar people. During the summer programme you are likely to hear informal complaints about other team members, either in passing or during down time. It is important to allow team members to vent frustrations or release stress in their time off without feeling like it will become an in-work issue. Your team won’t share with you if they feel they are always on watch. 

That said, your team need to understand that they can come to you at any time to speak to you about a problem. 

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Most common problems that arise involve personality clashes between team members, or the perception of one that another is overstepping their authority, under working or underperforming. These situations, particularly if you have not previously noticed any issues, require monitoring so that you can make your own assessment. It may turn out that the complainant has a valid issue, but it may also turn out that they had just had a particularly problematic shift, and they were stressed or upset. If this is the case, the resolution may be different. 

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Resolving team complaints takes a certain level of sensitivity, as losing a team member for any reason in the middle of the programme creates a large number of problems for the remainder of  the summer. All resolutions should aim to improve the summer programme, its operations and success.

As a manager you must balance the line of friendship and support, and leadership and professionalism in order to get the best out of your team. 

A student complains that an activity leader shouted at them for swearing at a member of public when on an excursion.

Action: 

1. Welfare Officer to conduct investigation

2. Formal meeting between manager and activity leader to discuss the inappropriate manner in which the situation was dealt with.  

3. Activity Leader tasked with refreshing their safeguarding and welfare training. 

4. Meeting with the group leader responsible for the student, to discuss their behaviour and the Language in Action stance. The group leader then assumes responsibility for student reprimand. Group leader is also to be informed that the team leader has been spoken to separately.

5. Depending on how the situation has been received, the activity leader should be removed from all activities and avenues of interaction with the student until the end of their stay. 

In this situation, the group leader is the best intermediary as they are ultimately responsible for the actions of a student. When dealing with the team member, the outcome, and any discussion does not need to be shared with external clients, other than to say it has been managed internally. 

Because the situation involves an Activity Leader, this would be noted in your next catch up with your Area Manager. For more serious situations, the Area Manager must be contacted before any resolution is made. 

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A senior group leader complains about the quality of the package and excursions planned for their students. 

Action: 

1. Listen to the group leader’s complaint and any possible suggestions they may have in an informal meeting (usually the moment they raise the complaint). 

2. Explain that you will look at the current timetable issues, and will look into the proposed solutions, and any other options that may be available. 

3. A) If suggested changes are viable, and do not come with additional costs or cancellations, and do not adversely affect other groups, you can make changes to the timetable and team rota to reflect the group’s wishes.  

Or

B) If the suggested changes are more complex, require additional costs, external bookings or will disrupt other groups, contact your area manager with a plan and seek authorisation to make the changes. 

4. Propose the optimum possible change to the group leader for confirmation that they are happy to proceed before announcing any changes or making any payments/bookings.  All payments must be approved by your area manager. 

5. Confirm changes in an informal meeting with the relevant group leaders, and in a message to Area Management and Activity Leader team. Any other parties the change may affect (e.g. external clients) should be contact by email. 

Building a rapport with group leaders is essential during the summer programme, and the informal meeting approach maintains the professionalism with the fluid nature of the programme. This complaint does not warrant a pre-arranged meeting with formal written agendas and outcomes, as you will be working so closely with group leaders, that this can be resolved at any time, and will often be raised late into the evening after student curfew.