Indicator 31 — Handling complaints and incidents
You must implement arrangements for handling the difficulties encountered by stakeholders, the complaints expressed and the incidents occurring during the service.
Applies to: OF · CFA · VAE · CBC
What the auditor actually checks
Indicator 31 covers three distinct objects the auditor systematically reviews:
- Complaints: any written expression of dissatisfaction (an unhappy trainee's email, a funder's challenge). You need a circuit: receipt, acknowledgement, analysis, answer, closure — and a register keeping the trace.
- Difficulties: problems expressed by a beneficiary during training (struggling to follow, conflict, equipment issue). The link with indicators 10 and 12 is direct: detection then adaptation.
- Incidents: events disrupting the service — sick trainer, unavailable room, platform outage, cancelled session. The auditor asks for your continuity solutions: replacement, postponement, switch to remote, and how you inform the parties.
The typical audit question: "tell me about a recent complaint or incident and how you handled it". Your register must let you answer in thirty seconds, evidence in hand.
Achieving compliance, step by step
1. Define what a complaint is for you
One sentence in your procedure: "any expression of dissatisfaction, written or oral, from a stakeholder and calling for an answer". State the entry channel (a dedicated email address or a mention in your contractual documents) and the acknowledgement deadline (48 to 72 hours is a sustainable commitment).
2. Create the register
A table suffices: number, date, origin, description, severity, corrective action, owner, deadline, closure date. Even empty, it proves the circuit. If it stays empty after a year of real activity, expect the question "really no dissatisfaction at all?" — also log the small difficulties you handled, they make the system credible.
3. Write the incident continuity plan
One page listing your five most likely incidents and the response for each: trainer unavailable → postponement within a fortnight or an identified substitute; room unavailable → backup room or virtual classroom; LMS outage → materials sent by email. State who informs trainees and the funder, and within what deadline.
4. Close the loop with indicator 32
Every significant closed complaint must appear in your continuous improvement plan. The auditor follows the thread: complaint → analysis → action → effectiveness check.
Field advice
Do not confuse a complaint with a negative survey answer: the latter belongs to indicator 30, but a very negative answer can trigger a register entry — state that threshold in your procedure; it is the kind of detail that reassures an auditor.
The evidence the auditor expects
- P.1Complaint-handling procedure: definition, channel, deadlines, owner, steps
- P.2Complaints and difficulties register kept up to date (or ready, for a new entrant)
- P.3Examples of handled complaints: acknowledgement, answer given, closure
- P.4Continuity plan listing likely incidents and planned responses
- P.5Evidence of a real incident handled: information emails, postponement amendment, replacement
- P.6Complaint channel mentioned in contractual documents or the welcome booklet
Common mistakes in audits
- No register at all, or one created the day before the audit with no real entry
- Handling complaints orally with no written trace of the answer
- No acknowledgement and processing deadlines defined in the procedure
- Forgetting incidents: no continuity plan for a trainer's absence or an unavailable room
- Not linking closed complaints to indicator 32's continuous improvement plan
FAQ — indicator 31
+What is the difference between a complaint and a negative review?
The negative review is an answer to your satisfaction questionnaire (indicator 30); the complaint is a spontaneous expression of dissatisfaction calling for an answer. Set in your procedure the threshold at which a very negative review enters the register.
+Can the complaints register be empty at the audit?
Yes for a new entrant: the ready register and the procedure suffice. After a year of activity, a totally empty register puzzles the auditor; also log the minor difficulties handled, to show the circuit works.
+What should be planned for training incidents?
A one-page continuity plan: absent trainer, unavailable room, technical outage, insufficient headcount, client cancellation. For each case, the fallback solution, the owner and the deadline for informing stakeholders.
- IND. 30Collecting stakeholder feedback
- IND. 32Continuous improvement