Charities and not-for-profit organisations need to handle complaints effectively in order to serve their customers and build a sense of community.
When people visit a charity, they need to feel safe and welcome to have a positive experience. If they are dissatisfied, they will need an easy way to voice their concerns and feel heard.
Common complaints against charities can be received for a number of reasons. For example, your customers may have issues with:
- Mismanagement of people’s information and data
- Use of donations
- Cost of fundraising or fundraising methods
- Quality of service
- Availability of necessary information
Rather than seeing complaints as a hassle, it’s best to view them as useful feedback that you can use to improve your service. When done well, complaints handling can be used to:
- Improve products and services
- Build better relationships with your donors and those you serve
- Improve your bottom line
- Empower your staff to resolve issues fairly and efficiently
On the other hand, poor complaints management can be costly for your organisation. It can cost you:
- Donor and customer loyalty
- The lifetime value of a donor
- The public reputation of your organisation
- Direct financial expenses in relation to the complaint
This is why handling complaints effectively in your NFP organisation is so important. Here are some areas to consider to improve your complaints handling strategy.
- Is it easy to make a complaint to your organisation? For example:
- Is the information about who to contact easy to find?
- Do you have feedback or complaint forms in print and digital formats?
- Is it possible to resolve complaints informally by talking to the individual and providing an explanation or apology?
- Are there recurring complaints? This can be a sign of a systemic issue in your organisation, so it’s well worth looking into.
Handling complaints the right way will help your NFP to better serve your customers and build a loyal sense of community.
Need a better way to handle complaints?
If you’re looking for an easier way to track, manage and resolve complaints in your community organisation, then take a look at our software.
At Causia®, our community services and NFP industry pack is an integrated complaints, quality, risk and compliance solution for the NFP industry. It allows your organisation to achieve its goals, with a reliable and comprehensive complaint management system.
Complaints Pro® provides a quick, cost-effective, centralised workflow for the best practice management of complaints.
Book a demo or talk to our expert team today to streamline your approach.
