If you are an NVC practitioner, make sure you have a Complaints Policy and Procedure.
Guidance Notes for Creating your own Complaints Process
Consider these questions as you write your policy. You may want to include the answers as part of the policy or use them to help you work out what you want to include. You can use this in conjunction with the Sample complaints policies below.
- What is your purpose and intention in having a Complaints Policy?
- What needs would it meet for you to have a process in place?
- What will you call your policy?
- Are you open to ALL feedback, as something that can help you learn and grow, even if is delivered in a way that is unsettling for you?
- What support will you need if someone makes a complaint about you? What will you do if you experience something as challenging to hear?
- What should people do first if they want to raise an issue with you?
- What if they are not comfortable contacting you directly?
- How will you respond if you receive a complaint?
- Does your policy offer a step by step description of how the process will work?
- Are there any gaps that someone could fall through?
Here is a template which you can adapt
Complaints / Dissatisfaction Policy (template)
Last updated xxxxxx
Purpose and Principles of this Policy
- To support clear, respectful acknowledgement of your complaints about or dissatisfaction with my services
- To support fair, fast, timely and transparent movement through any complaints
- To support a resolution process that is supportive of all parties.
Procedure
1. Get some support
If you have a complaint, I invite you first to talk it through with someone who can listen to you non-judgmentally and help you clarify your needs.
2. Contact me
Please let me know your complaint by email, and put the word ‘Complaint’ in the subject header.
I would like to hear:
- what has happened
- the impact on you
- what needs haven’t been met
- what you would like to see happen now.
We can communicate by email, or have a conversation so I can hear your complaints and find a resolution of the issue.
After this conversation, I will respond to you by email with what I have learnt from this incident and what I will do differently next time, if relevant.
If you are satisfied, this is the end of the process.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome, go to 3.
3. Further options
Please contact a trainer or mediator of your choosing and I will pay the costs of up to (2) hours of their time (write what feels comfortable for you) towards mutual satisfaction.
Here are some options