Complaints

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Sapphires customer service strategy is firmly centred around delivering a world class customer experience for all our employees, customers and industry partners. When reviewing our Customer Experience strategy, we recognised that dissatisfaction with our services has a clear link and direct impact to the lives of our employees and customers.

On making this link our “Handle with Care” Complaints Handling Policy came to life.

Being honest and open with our intent, fulfilling the promises that we make, listening to our employees and customers, providing needs-based solutions and reducing the margin for error or mistake should be the minimal standard expected.

From time to time however we don’t always get this right and it is important that our employees and customers know that in this event they are in safe hands and that any complaints raised are managed with diligence and due care.

Not only are we are prepared to take the relevant actions to resolve the issues at hand, but we are also committed to taking relevant next steps to ensure the risk of an issue repeating itself
is kept to the absolute minimum.

At Sapphire we believe in three key principles when it comes to handling and resolving our customers complaints:

If we get it wrong, we will put it right and fix things, first time, no excuses.
We will be honest with our intent and when mistakes have been made, we will take accountability and apologise.
We will analyse why our customers are making complaints and use this information to inform our thinking and future processes to create a better employee and customer experience.

Within this policy we will explain how your compliant will be handled, your rights as a complainant, how we classify your complaint and what you can expect from Sapphire when managing your complaints.

The purpose of the policy is to ensure that every time we receive a complaint we acknowledge it, treat the complainant fairly and consistently, understand the reasons why there is a complaint and deliver a fair resolution.

We also want to be 100% transparent when it comes to complaints handling so that you, our valued employees and customers can be safe in the knowledge that we are listening to you, are prepared to act when needed and deliver the highest possible standards when it comes to customer care. We hope that your Sapphire experience will be steeped in value and will mitigate the need for you to complain, but when you do, we can guarantee that you will be handled with care.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Gareth Murphy
Head of Customer Experience, Sapphire Contracting

Policy Coverage

Our Handle with Care complaints policy covers all Sapphire employees, customers and partners/third parties. When a complaint or dissatisfaction is raised with Sapphire our staff should recognise the issue, acknowledge the complaint, investigate the issue(s), resolve and confirm the resolution, respond accordingly and ensure that the complaint is logged in full in our complaints management tool. In most cases the complaint should be resolved in the moment but on the occasion the complaint takes a little longer to resolve or requires suitable resolution our policy clearly defines how these should be managed.

Raising a Complaint

When we get something wrong, fall short of our service promises, create personal or financial impact or behave in a way that causes distress or a detriment to our operations Sapphire encourage our customers, employees and clients to raise a complaint. When a complaint is raised this gives Sapphire the opportunity to put things right, correct mistakes, acknowledge our shortfalls, apologise and importantly learn from this issue to prevent future occurrences happening for our customers. A complaint can be raised in 3 ways:

By telephone, ringing 01625 539 997, selecting option 2 and speaking to one of our experienced complaints managers.
By email or in writing addressed to either support@sapphireorg.co.uk or via post to our Head Office address – Bramhall House, 14 Ack Lane East, Bramhall, Stockport, Cheshire, England, SK7 2BY.
Via our dedicated WhatsApp channel (01625 539 997 on WhatsApp).

It is important to let us know as much detail as possible when raising your complaint so that we can investigate in full before coming back to you with potential next steps and a proposed resolution.

How we will manage your complaint

When we are made aware of any type of complaint our team of complaint managers must follow a series of steps to ensure we are managing your complaint with care. These include but are not limited to:

Listening to what we are being told and capturing the relevant information.
Apologising for any dissatisfaction/inconvenience that has been caused whilst being empathetic with our response.
Classifying the complaint into the relevant complaint category.
Taking the appropriate action to resolve the complaint in full, setting timely and realistic timescales for what future resolution may look like or escalating the complaint to the appropriate level if the complaint can’t be resolved or managed in a satisfactory way or a lack of agreement can’t be reached.
Upon resolution we must check that the resolution is at the least satisfactory and brings the complaint to a fair and reasonable conclusion in line with our values and customer charter.
We must log all complaints in our complaints management tool to allow us to analyse and improve our future services as well as manage complaint trends and frequent issues. This will also generate a complaint reference number, available to you on request.

Classifying Your Complaint

Sapphire looks at all complaints on a 3-tier basis.

Micro Complaints: Micro complaints are classed as any expression of dissatisfaction either verbally or written to Sapphire. Typically, we can resolve these in the moment or within 24 hours of the compliant being raised. Micro complaints are often resolved with simple advice or by way of an apology. Micro complaints allow us to put things right as soon as we can and also provide valuable insight and learns for the future to safeguard us from repeat complaints. This is our most common complaint type.
Escalated Complaints: An escalated complaint is a complaint or dissatisfaction that cannot be resolved within 24 hours. Typically, the complaint will require further investigation and will be owned by the Complaint Manager or escalated to the complaints Team Leader. If a resolution can’t be found or a higher level of investigation or resolution is required. We expect this type of complaint to be resolved within 5 working days and the complaint to remain live until its resolved in full.
Major Complaints: A rare form of complaint major complaints include those that are escalated to the Head of Customer Experience if not resolved within 5 working days or complaints that require immediate escalation to the Head of Customer Experience. These include but are not limited to breaches of compliance, data protection, bullying, harassment, negligible financial or personal loss to the customer and such instances like fraud, money laundering, theft and deception. Each case tends to be unique and is managed in line with major complaint timescales where possible.

If you are not satisfied with our resolution

If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been manged, handled and resolved Sapphire endeavour to review this via our Complaints Appeals Policy. If you still believe that your complaint isn’t resolved we ask that you log your appeal with us in writing, within 7 days of receiving a final resolution for the attention of the Head of Customer Experience. Please write to either support@sapphireorg.co.uk or via post to our Head Office address – Bramhall House, 14 Ack Lane East, Bramhall, Stockport, Cheshire, England, SK7 2BY stating the reasons why you believe your complaint hasn’t been resolved satisfactorily. We will be in touch within 24 business hours to acknowledge your appeal and aim to resolve such disputes within 7 working days. If you are not satisfied with the outcome after appeal or are appealing the resolution granted by the Head of Customer Experience your complaint will be escalated to Director level within Sapphire and a further review will take place. At this point an amended resolution will be communicated in the hope of resolving your complaint or your complaint will be moved to a “Deadlock Scenario”.

Deadlock Scenarios

In the very rare scenario that an agreement cannot be reached between all parties regarding the resolution of a complaint a deadlock scenario would be the next outcome. A deadlock scenario would only be put in place when the complainant is still unhappy with a proposed resolution and the Complaints Handling Policy has been exhausted and all reasonable steps to mitigate, resolve, apologise and compensate the complainant have taken place. In this scenario the complaint remains open for 28 working days to allow parties to engage with any external advice bodies and present any further evidence to show why the outcome to a complaint is unfair or not in keeping with the expectations of the complainant and the Complaints Handling Policy. At the end of the 28-day period and on the review of any further information provided the complaint will be reviewed by a Complaints Handling Panel who will determine if the resolution is adequate or further consideration is required. At this point Sapphire reserve, the right to either issue a final resolution or close the complaint as Deadlocked – Unresolved. Sapphire endeavour to avoid any complaint reaching this status and will try to ensure any complaint is fairly, reasonably and transparently resolved with no exceptions.

Timescales and Touch Points

Micro Complaints Resolved within 24 hours of the complaint being raised. Managed by the Complaint Manager. If escalation required escalated to the Complaints Team Leader if no resolution agreed. Escalated Complaints Resolved within 5 working days of the complaint being raised. Managed by the Complaints Team Leader. If escalation required escalated to the Head of Customer Experience. Major Complaints Open ended timescale for resolution dependent on complaint type and severity. To be agreed with the complainant. Managed by the Head of Customer Experience. Potential escalation to Operations Director or deadlock scenario.

Grievance Procedure

Sapphire is committed to ensuring that everyone is treated fairly and consistently during your employment with Sapphire. Our grievance procedure can be found on the web link here which articulates the steps available to you should you wish to raise a grievance in relation to your employment. In the event of a grievance being raised please contact us to discuss this and if an informal resolution cannot be found please raise your grievance in writing, addressed to the Head of Customer Experience to either support@sapphireorg.co.uk or via post to our Head Office address – Bramhall House, 14 Ack Lane East, Bramhall, Stockport, Cheshire, England, SK7 2BY. A response will be received within 2 working days.

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