Complaint Management

Case Study

Improves service by managing complaints efficiently, reducing churn, and enhancing customer trust and feedback.

Problem Statement of the Customer

A reputed university approached us with a recurring concern regarding ineffective grievance redressal mechanisms across campus. The university, comprising thousands of students, faculty, and support staff, lacked a centralized and transparent system to address day-to-day complaints, service requests, and campus-related issues.

The university was facing the following challenges:

Lack of visibility into complaint status and resolution timelines.
b. Manual, paper-based complaint logging that resulted in delays, lost records, and no follow-up mechanism.
c. No department-wise accountability or tracking of complaint types, volumes, or response times.
d. Students and faculty had no direct digital channel to raise complaints or check progress.

Our Findings

Upon discussions and process analysis, we discovered:

Complaints were being registered either through word-of-mouth, physical registers, or emails-none of which ensured traceability.
Department heads were unaware of unresolved or overdue complaints unless escalated manually.
There was no analytical insight into recurring issues, peak complaint times, or departmental performance.
Users (students, faculty, staff) were disheartened due to the lack of acknowledgement or closure of their grievances.

Construct of Solution Architecture

We designed a Complaint Management System (CMS) tailored for educational campuses, which included:

A web-based portal and mobile-responsive interface accessible by students, faculty, and administrative staff.

Role-based access for Admins, Departments, and Complainants.

Category-wise complaint logging, with attachments and description fields for clarity.

Real-time status updates via email and dashboard notifications.

Time-stamped complaint tracking, with automatic alerts/escalations for unresolved issues.

Analytics dashboard for the management to view department-wise resolution metrics and overall performance.

Ability to assign, reassign, and close complaints within set SLA timelines.

Integration with existing University Login System or ERP (optional).

Realities on Ground & How They Were Overcome

1

Some departments resisted switching from manual registers to digital systems. A few training sessions helped staff embrace the change.

2

Internet access limitations in older buildings were mitigated by providing offline complaint entry (admin-assisted).

3

Users were initially reluctant to use the portal-awareness drives, student orientations, and QR code posters on campus made adoption smoother.

4

The administration was concerned about complaints being public-privacy filters were applied so only relevant parties could view them

Within 60 days of rollout:

Over 700+ complaints were logged, and 95% were resolved within SLAs.
Student feedback indicated increased trust in university operations.
Management had their first-ever visibility into patterns, bottlenecks, and repeat issues

Recommendations for Future Improvements

Integrate feedback/rating mechanism post-resolution to monitor satisfaction levels.
Enable mobile app for faster access and push notifications.
Expand the system to include service requests (maintenance, IT support, hostel needs).
Publish anonymized monthly resolution reports to build transparency.
Implement AI-based classification for recurring complaints and auto-routing in the future phase.

Conclusion

The solution transformed the university’s complaint redressal into a transparent, accountable, and data-driven process. It boosted student confidence and administrative efficiency, while also reducing workload through automation.

Case Study