Customer Complaint Process

Complaints Policy and Procedure

Introduction

Our aim is to offer the highest possible standard of service to our clients on every occasion, and, whilst we strive to achieve this, we recognise that problems can still arise, and mistakes may be made and that you may wish to make a complaint about our services.

Every year, we successfully help many families through a very difficult time in their lives.  However, occasionally, someone is left feeling unhappy and unsatisfied with the service they have received.

In these cases, we have this complaints procedure in place to make it easy for you to raise an issue and inform us of your dissatisfaction.  Where possible, we would hope that we can put things right for you, unfortunately, because of the nature of our business we may only be able to offer an explanation along with our sincere apologies.

We take all complaints seriously and want to be able to have the opportunity to learn from them.  Your feedback is invaluable to us as it helps us to review and improve our service to you and other families.

Our commitment to you is to be transparent in all aspects of our business, including our service charges and third-party fees (disbursements).  This commitment extends to all our clients and the deceased in our care.  We value your trust and work hard to maintain it through our transparency.

If you wish to complain

If you have any concerns before the funeral service, or services, are provided, we encourage you to speak to a member of our team to answer any queries you may have.  This will allow us to try to resolve the issue before the funeral service, or services, are provided.

If you decide to make a formal complaint, we encourage you to speak to us in the first instance.  This allows us the opportunity to work with you to resolve the matter.  We are committed to addressing all complaints as quickly as possible, ensuring your concerns are heard and acted upon promptly.

How to complain

You can complain to us in the following ways:

Stages and timescales

We have a four-stage complaints process:

• Stage 1: Acknowledgement
• Stage 2: Investigation
• Stage 3: Response and resolution
• Stage 4: Appeal

Stage 1 – Acknowledgement: We aim to acknowledge a complaint in writing (either via email or post) within five working days of receiving it.

Stage 2 – Investigation: During this stage, the investigating manager may need to request further information to enable them to fully understand your complaint and continue their internal investigations.

Stage 3 – Response and resolution: Our investigation should be completed within 20 working days of receiving a complaint and a suitable resolution proposed.  During this period, we may need to correspond on an ongoing basis to request additional information and/or to discuss the proposed resolution.

Stage 4 – Appeal: If the proposed resolution is not accepted, you should communicate an appeal to us in writing within 10 working days of receipt of the proposed resolution.

We will review the appeal and communicate any final response.  In our correspondence, we will also provide the details of the free and independent Dispute Resolution Service offered by the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD).  This service can be used if you remain dissatisfied with our final response.  A complaint to the NAFD must be made within 12 months of the funeral date.  Details of this independent Dispute Resolution Service can be viewed at: www.nafd.org.uk/standards/nafd-resolve/

Considerations

We will always work with you to establish the details and circumstances of your complaint.

The complaint may involve the actions of third parties (such as funeral officiants or activities that take place at third-party venues).  Whilst we recognise that some aspects of your complaint may involve third parties, we will endeavour to try to reach a satisfactory conclusion by engaging these third parties on your behalf when it is possible and appropriate to do so.  Still, we may be limited, and the matter may need to be pursued with them directly.

Sometimes, we may be constrained by law in responding to certain aspects of a complaint.  For example, we may be bound by duties of confidentiality or by data protection laws.

Considering these constraints, we aim to be as transparent as possible in our response to you.

PLEASE NOTE: If the timescales above are unachievable for any reason, we will work with you to agree on appropriate revised timeframes.

The vast majority of complaints will be reasonable, and both sides will act in good faith to achieve a fair resolution.  We aim to be always professional and courteous in our dealings with you, and we expect the same in return when you are engaging with our staff and draw your attention to our Client Code of Conduct for our expectations https://www.nevillefuneralservice.com/client-code-of-conduct/

Your right to privacy

All complaints received will be handled confidentially and in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.