Indicates whether the organization has a system in place to receive and resolve client complaints.
Organizations should footnote the details of how they receive and handle client complaints. See usage guidance for further information.
This metric is intended to capture whether the organization has a system to receive and process complaints and other feedback from clients. In educational contexts, clients can refer to students. In health care contexts, clients refers to patients, and in housing contexts, clients refers to residents or tenants.
A complaint tracking system is a way for clients to provide feedback, ask questions, and file complaints that is broadly recognized and promoted by the organization and of which most or all clients/customers are aware. Examples, which should be footnoted, may include products that have an email address or phone number for customer feedback listed on their packaging, an organization that has a client feedback link displayed on its website, or an organization that includes a client feedback number on its invoices or contract agreements. With respect to the resolution of complaints, organizations should footnote their system for tracking how and when complaints were addressed.
Organizations should consider reporting this metric in conjunction with Complaints Ratio (PI5216) and Number of Complaints Registered (PI2197).
In educational contexts, this metric can be used to indicate whether the school or program has a system for receiving student reports about bullying and addressing those complaints. For more information on anti-bullying policies, see U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Stopbullying.org, “How to Prevent Bullying: Set Policies & Rules” (https://www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/at-school/rules/index.html).
Metrics identified as "cross-category" are those that are relevant to any IRIS+ Impact Category or Impact Theme (i.e., these metrics are not specific to any particular industry/category or theme).
June 2022 - IRIS v5.3 Released (current version)
Immaterial change. Minor revision to usage guidance for clarity.
January 2020 - IRIS v5.1 Released
Immaterial change. Edited usage guidance and tagging
May 2019 - IRIS v5.0 Released
No change.
March 2016 - IRIS v4.0 Released
New metric. Client Complaint Tracking System (PI9435) was developed via the IRIS Taxonomy Group.
IRIS Metrics Work Better in Sets
To use IRIS metrics—and the resulting data—to understand impact performance, IRIS metrics should be used and analyzed in generally accepted sets and according to well-defined objectives. IRIS+ gives you access to generally accepted Core Metrics Sets aligned to common Impact Themes and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).