PURPOSE:
This policy is to help staff improve the overall service provided to our visitors and customers of the Hunt Museum. By following best practice and empowering staff to deal with complaints, this will improve service standards across the Museum and increase customer satisfaction.
A complaints procedure is a regulatory requirement, but having an accessible complaints procedure in place can help to increase customer confidence. It shows that we are committed to providing a good level of service and means we are ready if/when a complaint is made.
WHAT WE DO:
The Hunt Museum CLG serves a wide range of audiences, including general visitors, artists and arts professionals, donors and lenders, education and community groups. We also work with a number of other entities, such as the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, other Government Departments and agencies, Education organisations, Limerick City & County Council, the Limerick & Clare Education Training Board, the Office of Public Works and the media .
Everyone at the Hunt Museum is committed to serving all our visitors and customers in accordance with the highest standards of quality customer service. Across our full range of activities, we undertake to:
- Deal with all our visitors and customers courteously and equitably
- Provide prompt, accurate and full information on our programmes, services and facilities to general visitors to the Museum and to respond to substantial queries from general
visitors within 10 working days
- Provide an initial response to telephone queries within two working days and a full
response within 10 working days
- Provide an initial response to correspondence, by letter or email, within five working days
and a full response within 10 working days
- Provide an interim reply to let the person know that the matter is still receiving attention,
if a definitive reply cannot be issued within 10 working days
- Provide an accessible and fair complaints and redress system
- Ensure that our public spaces are safe, clean and accessible
- Work to continually improve our service to the public
If any staff member is seen to have brought the position of the Hunt Museum into disrepute, a meeting with the Director will be scheduled to discuss any probation required, or possible verbal/written warning.
Complaints Mechanisms & Guidelines for resolution
It must be acknowledged that it is the customer’s right to make a complaint if they feel that the level of service provided by the Hunt Museum has not been met. The person should be treated with dignity & respect, their points taken on board and they should feel that they have been heard.
Complaints may be made in person, via email, letter, our website or on the telephone. The following sets out the process.
If making a complaint in person:
- Members of the public wishing to make a complaint should be dealt with by the person receiving the complaint if at all possible, however, if this is not feasible, they should be directed to a senior member of staff for resolution.
- The staff member should actively listen to the complaint, not interrupt but take notes if possible, so that they are fully informed before speaking with other staff members to find a resolution.
- If this is not possible, members of the public should be directed to contact the Hunt Museum by email/letter detailing their level of complaint, day and time, who they spoke with and how they would wish us to resolve it.
- All complaints correspondence should be directed to info@huntmuseum.com to avoid complaints going unanswered due to lack of ownership.
Via our website / email:
- If the complaint comes via our website or direct via email, the person responsible for taking complaints must inform any staff involved immediately.
- All involved staff members must meet within a reasonable time (prior to published response times) to discuss the complaint, the persons named, and come to an agreement on how the situation should be resolved.
- Once the complaint has been discussed and a resolution reached, the member of staff responsible for the area of complaint will reach out to the affected party to involve them in a resolution process.
Via telephone:
- If a complaint is made over the phone, the receiving staff member will take all information in a polite and professional manner.
- They will inform the person making the complaint of our guidelines and timeframe with dealing with complaints, and invite them to follow up with an email detailing their complaint, if they so wish, though this is not mandatory.
- All involved staff members must meet within a reasonable time (prior to published response times) to discuss the complaint, the persons named, and come to an agreement on how the situation should be resolved.
- Once the complaint has been discussed and a resolution reached, the member of staff responsible for the area of complaint will reach out to the affected party to involve them in a resolution process.
- If any staff member is seen to have brought the position of the Hunt Museum into disrepute, a meeting with the Director will be scheduled to discuss any probationary requirement, or possible verbal/written warning.
Should a resolution not be reached to the satisfaction of the parties involved the complainant may ask for a meeting with the CEO of the Hunt Museum. If this does not result in a satisfactory outcome, the issue will be brought to the Hunt Museum CLG Board as the final arbiter, provided there is no legal case to answer.