Complaint Redressal Research Articles

Telecom industry grievance redressal system: a study of ombudsman approach in selected countries

PurposeThis study aims to explore the telecom regulations and telecom reforms of different countries in the context of consumer complaints and grievance handling. The telecom dispute resolution mechanisms of countries such as Australia, the USA, the UK and India are studied. This qualitative research is carried out for the three major telecom markets: Australia, the USA and India.Design/methodology/approachHere, research is conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the telecom policies of the major telecom markets, their ombudsman policies and consumer grievance redressal mechanisms are studied. In the second stage, the qualitative analysis of the three telecom markets, Australia, the USA and India, is conducted through in-depth interviews, the questionnaire method for telecom customers and secondary research.FindingsTelecom customer satisfaction is significantly higher in countries with the telecom ombudsman as a system of telecom governance redressal. This study dedicates significant importance to the distinctiveness of the grievance resolution systems in different countries and suggests recommendations for improving the mechanisms. The recommendations given in the research study emerge as the output of interviewing telecom experts, academicians and researchers and court judges.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has partial limitations as primary research was carried out only in selected countries with limited participants.Practical implicationsThis study is useful for policymakers, regulators and think tanks in the telecommunications sector.Social implicationsThe resolution of individual customer grievances is significant to the telecom industry and all participants. A well-oiled grievance redressal system enhances the trust among the service users and aids in the industry’s growth. Further practical assessment of redressal offered by different telecom operators can be used for benchmarking, and it can create an onus on telecom operators for timely and adequate redressal of consumer complaints. In certain countries with a well-developed alternate dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism, the service offerings of telecom operators and the quality of services are deemed to be better than those without such an ADR. The research aims to bring in the positives of ADR systems from specific telecom markets and suggest the effectiveness of such ADR for countries such as India, which has over 1.17billion active subscribers. This research aims to aid responsive communication with telecom consumers in the overall telecom industry, which can bolster telecom consumers’ confidence and help the industry grow sustainably. Discussing perspectives on telecom dispute resolution in various conferences and discussing use-cases of innovative dispute settlements can act as stimuli in this space. As ADR procedures are conducted in the shadow of the law, a dispute resolution framework must have a buy-in from the government, telecom experts, the judiciary and private telecom stakeholders. This can only help achieve a framework that can reap the benefits of various ADR/ODR processes facilitating better access to justice, including cost-effectiveness, swiftness, a broader reach for dispute resolution and improved efficiency of dispute resolution.Originality/valuePrevious studies have focused on the study of telecom reforms and mechanisms in a particular country and there was a limited comparison with other countries’ mechanisms. Also, there has been minimal research in this area in recent years. This paper contributes to analyzing the effectiveness of the telecom ombudsman framework in Australia, the USA, the UK and India. It also studies the reforms and consumer grievance-handling mechanisms in a few other countries. It also gives well-researched recommendations for improving the consumer grievance resolution system.

Regression Analysis of the Court Complaints in the District Consumer Forums of Uttrakhand, India

Purpose: The current study aims to understand consumer complaints trends in district courts of the newly constructed state of Uttarakhand. Design/Methodology/Approach: A descriptive study was conducted to test the research framework. The secondary data on the consumer complaints filed with district consumer courts of Uttarakhand for 2006-2017 was considered for the study. Regression analysis was employed to understand consumer complaint behaviour trends concerning literacy and pendency rates. Findings: Trend analysis demonstrated that new cases filed with district consumer courts are higher in plain areas (Dehradun, Haridwar & Udham Singh Nagar). Regression analysis depicted a significant negative relationship between the case pendency rate and the number of new cases filed. The relationship between literacy rate and the number of new cases filed was not significant. Managerial Implications: Present study reinforces the significance of consumer courts in addressing to redressal of consumer complaints. It suggests firms and organizations address customers redressals properly; else, customers will take them to court. At the same time, it warns consumer courts about the increasing pendency of cases and urges them to take proper remedial actions. Originality/Value: The study highlighted the role of Third-party action in consumer complaint behaviour and provided an overview of consumer courts' performance and efficiency in 13 districts of Uttarakhand.

Satisfaction of Primary Caregiver with the Dental Treatment by Silver Diammine Fluoride during COVID-19 Pandemic

Context: Silver diammine fluoride (SDF) is a neoteric preventive measure that effectively arrests caries at an early stage and prevents its further progression. Aim: SDF (38%) is an evidence-based nonrestorative treatment for carious lesions of both dentitions causing permanent black staining. The aim of this study was to find out primary caregiver's satisfaction with SDF treatment and factors affecting it during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subjects and Methods: Eighty-nine parents were contacted after 6 months of the application of SDF to their child's teeth through telephone and were asked questions related to SDF. Statistical Analysis Used: For statistical analysis, predictive modeling through machine learning algorithms by random tree and Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) model was done and accuracy was also checked. Results: In 92.1% of the cases, the primary caregiver was the mother. Only 19.1% reported esthetic concern related to black discoloration. Random tree and CHAID model showed chief complaint redressal as the main variable governing the satisfaction of primary caregiver. Random tree was a better model predictor with 96.6% accuracy against 82% of CHAID. Conclusions: Parents accepted SDF treatment for their child, especially in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and would go for its use in future as a treatment modality.

Multi-class railway complaints categorization using Neural Networks: RailNeural

Indian railways are one of the largest rail networks in the world, and millions of passengers travel daily through it, due to which there are also a vast number of complaints in front of Indian Railways coming every minute through various mediums like COMS (Complaint Management System) app, RailMadad, SMS etc. Given the top-down approach which is followed for the uncategorised complaints making official's work time-consuming. Therefore, faster complaint redressal becomes a critical factor for the passenger's satisfaction. Previous research has focused on traditional machine learning algorithms and Twitter dataset available publicly to tackle this problem. In this work, we have explored deep learning techniques on an official dataset of the COMS app from CRIS (Centre for Railways Information Systems) and proposed RailNeural: an Attention Based Bi-Directional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model which analyses user's complaint input sequences, capturing the underlying character level feature and then classifies them into their respective departments of field units ensuring prompt and accurate redressal of complaints. Our model outperforms several baseline models achieving an accuracy of 93.25 per cent and an F1-Score of 0.93.

Complaint Redressal System of Banks: Comparison of Customers and Bankers Perception

The paper attempts to analyze and compare customers’ and bankers perception and behaviour towards complaint redressal system of banks. The study was conducted in three most populated districts (Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar) of Punjab, India. From each district 3 public (SBI, PNB and Punjab and Sind Bank) and 3 private sector banks (HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank) having maximum number of branches were chosen. From each bank, one branch operating in rural and one in urban area was selected randomly. Hence, a total of 36 branches were contacted. From each branch 20 customers and 2-3 officers/managers were surveyed through a structured and non disguised questionnaire based on complaint redressal system of banks namely Banking Ombudsman. Thus, survey was administered on 720 customers (36*20=720) and 72 bankers (36*2=72). Findings highlighted that very few customers were aware about customer complaint redressal system. Banks do not provide much information about complaint redressal system resulting in most of the customers not complaining about the problems faced by them. Hence, a gap was found between problems faced by the customers and complaints received by the bankers.

Performance evaluation of water supply services in Chitungwiza: How water supply services mirrors poor governance and lack of management

Background: Provision of reliable water services is crucial for urban livelihood. In Chitungwiza, provision of water services has been deteriorating since the millennium with residents losing hope for better services. The poor supply of municipal water in Chitungwiza has led to a chronic ‘dry taps situation’ where household taps are dry from periods of several consecutive days to months.Aim: This article assesses the water supply challenges in Chitungwiza through performance evaluation of the water supply services.Setting: The study was conducted in 26 suburbs in the four residential zones of Chitungwiza Municipality.Methods: Performance evaluation of water supply services was carried out using seven performance indicators: coverage of water supply connection, extent of metering of water connections, presence of leakages, extent of non-revenue water, continuity of water supply, quality of water supplied and efficiency in redressal of customer complaints. Two hundred and ninety-eight semi-structured questionnaires were administered in four residential zones of Chitungwiza. Water distribution system surveillance and key informant interviews were also conducted.Results: The results indicate high non-revenue water, poor water infrastructure maintenance, lack of water investment leading to widespread leakages in the distribution system, poor water quality supply and unreliable services provision. A majority, 80.2%, rated the municipal water supply services as poor. To cope with this new reality, households in Chitungwiza implemented a ‘source switch’ to new sources.Conclusion: Household shallow wells were identified as the main adapting strategy with 51.7% households relying on wells despite concerns about the water quality of the wells. Chitungwiza municipality should implement structural reforms that allow the current water service provision to improve.

Benchmarking farmers’ satisfaction with special reference to Pradhan Mantri Fasal BIMA Yojna

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) was launched in 2016 with an impetus on crop sector which replaced existing crop insurance schemes in India. This scheme focuses on adoption of modern technology for the purpose of yield estimation and increasing the crop insurance penetration in India. The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants to benchmark the satisfaction of farmers with special reference to PMFBY. Data were collected by employing schedule from Lucknow and Kanpur districts and 181 responses were used for analysis. This study is exploratory, descriptive and cross-sectional in nature. A twelve 12-item scale was subjected to Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) resulting in farmers’ satisfaction. Further, PMFBY can be measured or reasoned along four facets i.e. services, complaint redressal, rendering of services and transparency. The scale developed with above process may prove reliable and valid in measuring the satisfaction attributes of farmers. This study is expected to provide the sound base to government and insurance institutions towards formulating the strategies for effective implementation and assessing satisfaction level of farmers.

Grievance Redressal System

An effective and efficient response to the complaints is an essential index of organization’s performance. In colleges if anyone wants to complaint about something they have to write it down on a paper and submit which is not environment friendly. So, for solving this problem we developed Grievance redressal system. Here anyone associated with college being a student, faculty or working staff can easily file their complaint. To make this window more secure we mandated registration and login before one can file their complaint. These complaint are going to be solved by competent authority. The presented model for the Complaint Redressal System will have the ability to minimize people’s dissatisfaction and on the other hand it can encourage people to participate in improving the quality of the service provided.

Complaint Redressal Practices in Public and Private Insurance Companies

The life insurance industry of India has 23 licenses -holders running their business in this sector. The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI), which is the only player in the public sector, the remaining area is covered by the 22 private sector companies. IRDAI has taken initiatives to provide effective grievance handling machinery to address the grievances of policyholders. Consumer dispute Redressal agency is efficient for handling complaints and easily accessible. This paper examines the regulations and guidelines framed by IRDAI for effective grievance handling and the study would provide some insights into the areas, specifically status of grievances in public and private life insurance companies (LIC, SBI, HDFC, Reliance Life and Bajaj Allianz) and the functioning of consumer dispute Redressal agencies of life insurance sectors.

Effectiveness of Consumer Forums in India

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986, (CPA) is a socio-economic legislation to protect and promote the interests of consumers in a unified and effective manner. From the time of its inception as on 5th July 2018, there have been more than 4.2 Lakh cases pending in the various Consumer Forums. Thus, after 30 years of implementing CPA, it is time to reconsider and rethink whether Consumer forums have been able to deliver and provide speedy justice to the needy in time? Are the members trained enough to provide justice, needs to be revisited? There have been allegations that the lawyers have taken over the consumer forums and the three-tier judiciary is totally dependent on the Department of Consumer Affairs for appointment of members and financial support. The author identifies important questions stemming from discontinuities in CPA, the working of the consumer forums in India, and suggests implementation of the New Consumer Protection Bill, 2018, mediation for speedy redressal of consumer complaints.

The health system accountability impact of prison health committees in Zambia

BackgroundFrom 2013, the Zambian Corrections Service (ZCS) worked with partners to strengthen prison health systems and services. One component of that work led to the establishment of facility-based Prison Health Committees (PrHCs) comprising of both inmates and officers. We present findings from a nested evaluation of the impact of eight PrHCs 18 months after programme initiation.MethodsIn-depth-interviews were conducted with 11 government ministry and Zambia Corrections Service officials and 6 facility managers. Sixteen focus group discussions were convened separately with PrHC members (21 females and 51 males) and non-members (23 females and 46 males) in 8 facilities. Memos were generated from participant observation in workshops and meetings preceding and after implementation. We sought evidence of PrHC impact, refined with reference to Joshi’s three domains of impact for social accountability interventions – state (represented by facility-based prison officials), society (represented here by inmates), and state-society relations (represented by inmate-prison official relations). Further analysis considered how project outcomes influenced structural dimensions of power, ability and justice relating to accountability.ResultsData pointed to a compelling series of short- and mid-term outcomes, with positive impact on access to, and provision of, health services across most facilities. Inmates (members and non-members) reported being empowered via a combination of improved health literacy and committee members’ newly-given authority to seek official redress for complaints and concerns. Inmates and officers described committees as improving inmate-officer relations by providing a forum for information exchange and shared decision making. Contributing factors included more consistent inmate-officer communications through committee meetings, which in turn enhanced trust and co-production of solutions to health problems. Nonetheless, long-term sustainability of accountability impacts may be undermined by permanently skewed power relations, high rates of inmate (and thus committee member) turnover, variable commitment from some officers in-charge, and the anticipated need for more oversight and resources to maintain members’ skills and morale.ConclusionOur study shows that PrHCs do have potential to facilitate improved social accountability in both state and societal domains and at their intersection, for an extremely vulnerable population. However, sustained and meaningful change will depend on a longer-term strategy that integrates structural reform and is delivered through meaningful cross-sectoral partnership.

A Study on the Efficiency of Complaint Redressal System Adopted by Selected Indian Banks and its Association with the Net Profit Earned

Banking is one of the strongest pillars of the Service Sector; a major contributor to India’s GDP sources of credit to both household and industrial sectors. With the advent of globalization and upcoming private banks in India, there is a significant rise in the customers’ expectations resulting in increase in customers’ complaints. In this context, an effective and efficient “Complaint Redressal System” is looked upon not only from regulatory perspective but also marketing support. Awareness about the functioning of “Complaint Redressal System” by the customer and reaction of aggrieved/dissatisfied customers have kept banks vigilant in the competitive market environment. This research paper is an attempt to study the efficiency of “Complaint Redressal System” adopted by both private and public sector banks in India; the paper also undertakes comparative analysis of banks under two types of ownerships in terms of efficiency in resolving complaints, the customers’ perceptions, satisfaction and rating among these two types. Total 1000 bank customers (500 customers each of public sector banks and private sector banks) are surveyed from NCR. Exploratory research (secondary sources and literatures/review) and descriptive quantitative tools on the basis of primary data collect through survey are undertaken by the researcher. Hypotheses tests are done using both parametric test (Z-test) and non-parametric test (t-test, Chi-square test).

The ‘Ombuds Watchers’

This article examines the phenomenon of the ‘ombuds watchers’. These are groups of dissatisfied users of public service ombuds schemes who engage in legal protest against the current system of redress for citizen-state complaints. Through the lens of legal consciousness scholarship we propose a framework that conceptualizes the collectivized protest of the ombuds watchers. Based on an empirical dataset, our analysis shows that the ombuds watchers meet each of the defining characteristics of dissenting collectivism and demonstrates the existence of forms of legal consciousness which present ‘opportunities to build alternative imaginaries and institutions’. Our case study provides an insight into the potential for dissenting collectives to challenge the hegemonic structures of state law, while at the same time emphasising the continuing power of legal ideology in shaping popular understandings of justice. The article also suggests a pathway for future empirical research into user experiences of justice systems.

A Comparative Study to Analyse the Effectiveness of Sexual Harassment Policies of IT and Non IT Companies

The Current study aims at analysing the effectiveness of sexual harassment policies of IT and Non IT companies in India. The researcher has also made a comparison between IT and Non IT companies on the basis of the effectiveness of their sexual harassment policies. The study is based on both secondary and primary data. Secondary data was collected to study the sexual harassment policies of the companies, and primary data has been used to record the opinions of the employees towards the sexual harassment policies of their organization. The sample size of the study is 200. It was found from the study that there are mainly four factors that could be used to measure the effectiveness of the sexual harassment policies namely content, timing, actions and complaints. It was also found from the study that the sexual harassment policies of IT companies are far better than Non IT companies. Researchers have also suggested a few measures to improve the sexual harassment policies of the companies on the basis of existing sexual harassment policies of the surveyed companies and literature review.The Sexual Harassment Act has been enacted with the objective of providing women protection against sexual harassment at the workplace and for the prevention and redressal of complaints of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is considered as a violation of the fundamental right of a woman to equality as guaranteed under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India ("Constitution") and her right to life and to live with dignity as per Article 21 of the Constitution. It has also been considered as a violation of a right to practice or to carry out any occupation, trade or business under Article 19(1) (g) of the Constitution, which includes a right to a safe environment free from harassment.India finally enacted its law on prevention of sexual harassment against female employees at workplace. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 ("Sexual Harassment Act") has been made effective on April 23, 2013 by way of publication in the Gazette of India.

Health complaints and practitioner regulation: justice, protection or prevention?

ABSTRACTThis article reviews the objectives pursued by health complaints entities (HCEs), how they mesh with bodies concerned with the regulation of health practitioners, and how these functions map against those of administrative review and theories of consumer accountability. We show that HCEs pursue multiple and diverse objectives shared by ‘hybrid’ institutions dealing with complex ‘polycentric’ disputes or dynamic circumstances, constituting one part of a network or meta-regulatory web of regulatory and grievance agencies. We suggest that these health entities, which represent an atypical form of complaint handling (differing from administrative merits review) have associated trade-offs between objectives and overall system complexity that may have regulatory merit, but not be readily understood by health consumers. The article cautions that system-level perspectives (i.e. regulatory theory objectives) should not detract unduly from accountability and redress for individual complaints (complaints-resolution theory). We conclude that further empirical research is needed into: the balance between objectives of a complainant’s focus (justice), professional regulation (prevention) and public risk management (protection) and the optimal organisational linkages between complaints management and professional regulation.

Assessment of Technologies for Discoms in NCR and Development of Power Distribution Technology Implementation Index

Power distribution system acts as a bridge between the customers and the utility. With changing times , the consumers expectation is not power supply to them but a reliable and quality power supply with timely redressal of complaints . With advent of IT , and mobile technologies changing of our lives , consumers expects the utilities with accurate metering and billing free from any errors with facilities like online payment of bills and from mobile applications All of these can be possible only by adopting innovative and smarter technologies to curb human intervention and provide better services to the consumers in terms of handling complains and automate the consumer's redressal mechanism. IT and associated technologies also address in solving energy audit issues and identification of more problematic areas and which needs more focus and attention. The paper tries to assess the level of technologies implementation in power distribution companies in National Capital Region and proposes a power distribution Technology Index.

Complaint Redressal by Private and Public Sector Banks in India-a Review

Customers' complaints are a part of business life of any corporate entity and so is a major concern for Indian Banks. With the upcoming privatization and globalization of banks in India, there is a considerable increase in the volume of disputes between the customers and banks. A complaint redressal system is a procedure for receiving, registering and disposing of grievances expressed by a customer. Prevailing competition in the banking sector, increasing expectations of the customer in terms of facilities, high degree of personalisation, fast delivery of service, etc. have imposed pressure on banks to facilitate an efficient Complaint Redressal System in order to provide prompt and satisfactory solutions to customer complaints. Advent of technology has not only enabled banks to provide varied types of services but it has also led to more complex and diversified complaints raised by the customer. This research paper study the 'Complaint Redressal' system in Indian Banks to receive and redress the customers' complaints, has been analysised and a comparison has been drawn between private and public sector banks in India with special reference to ICICI Bank (private sector bank) and SBI (public sector bank). An attempt has been made to discover the major reasons for customers 'complaints, efficiency of Indian banks to handle complaints and proposed suggestions to reduce grievances of bank customers and improve the efficiency of complaints redressal system.

Performance evaluation of water supply services in developing country: A case study of Ahmedabad city

Unplanned and rapid growth of urban areas of developing countries poses major threat to service providers. Water supply management becomes critical aspect in the above scenario. The onus of managing its supply and distribution rests on the local government of the concerned area. Ahmedabad being world’s third largest and India’s fastest growing city has been selected for analysis of water supply services. Performance evaluation of water supply services for Ahmedabad city was carried out using nine performance indicators suggested by Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD), Government of India. The nine performance indicators as suggested by MOUD are: coverage of water supply connection, per capita supply of water, extent of metering of water connections, extent of non revenue water, continuity of water supply, quality of water supplied, efficiency in redressal of customer complaints, cost recovery of water supply services and efficiency in collection of water supplied related charges. Required data was collected from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Analysis of the data suggests that among all the indicators of supply of water, cost recovery in water supply services, efficiency in redressal of customer complaints, quality of water supplied and efficiency in collection of water supply related charges showed good performance. However, metering of connection, continuity of water supply and non revenue water needs planned efforts to bring them up to the benchmark.

‘My Problem Solved, That's All !!’: A Phenomenological Approach to Consumer Complaint Redressal in Malaysia

This paper presents the process of complaint redressal from the perspectives of consumers through their lived experiences. It also attempts to highlight the peculiarities in behaviour exhibited by Malaysian consumers when their complaints/grievances have been sorted out. Based on phenomenological interviews conducted with the consumers, the complaint redressal process is discussed on the basis of their experiences in situations involving dissatisfaction arising from the usage of a product or service. The findings reveal that consumers in certain situations leave no stone unturned in gaining the support from different sources when they face a problem related to a product or service. They may also make use of different consumer associations/forums for having their problems voiced and tackled through. However, as soon as their issue is sorted out by the concerned product/service provider, they may just disappear without taking the pain to inform back the consumer associations which made all possible efforts to take forward the complaints with the concerned organization. In such situations, the consumer associations might have to face several difficulties and challenges which might further hamper their abilities, strengths and motivation to offer support to the aggrieved consumers in future.

SERICSAT

ABSTRACT In the first part of the present paper, a preliminary instrument is developed to measure the satisfaction customers experience as an outcome of the perceived fairness of the service recovery process. Towards this end, the concept of justice with its three dimensions, that is, procedural justice, interaction justice, and distributive justice, is modeled after the expectation-performance paradigm of customer satisfaction, resulting in the service recovery satisfaction scale, SERICSAT. The validity and reliability of the scale has been established for tourism and allied services. Later, the scale is employed to examine a proposition related to the effect of tourist satisfaction with particular service recovery situations upon future complaint behavior. It is posited that satisfactory complaint redressal associated with a tourist service has the effect of reinforcing the propensity not only to repurchase that service but also to complain about it in the future.