Complaints management

The Bank’s aim is to build a positive client experience and increase client service satisfaction during the complaint handling process. The documents governing the issues related to complaints are the product rules and the “Complaints Handling Instructions”. The results of this policy are visible, inter alia in the streamlining of complaints handling processes, the shortening of the time to examine cases and the empowering of employees who have been trained on the rules of plain communication with clients. [GRI 102-15] To mitigate reputational, legal and financial risks, the Bank has implemented internal regulations aimed at ensuring full compliance with the Act on complaint examination by financial market entities and on the Financial Ombudsman and the Payment Services Act.

Multiple actions were taken to streamline the complaints handling process to shorten the time for examining complaints and increase the level of client satisfaction:

• Roboticization was used to handle recurring operational tasks. Several robots are active in this process. Their activity is monitored and developed on an ongoing basis. Work is underway on implementing additional ones.
• The Bank continued to pursue monthly client satisfaction monitoring in respect of the complaints handling process and the Close the Loop process, in other words, analysis and contacts with clients who negatively assessed this process. In that way it is possible to track the client satisfaction level on an ongoing basis, analyze the reasons for satisfaction or dissatisfaction and take actions to augment client satisfaction.
• The project “Embrace the Problem” is ongoing. Its purpose is to support employees who are directly involved in client service as they solve clients’ problems by advising them of the most frequent cases and the need to accept justified and complete notifications.
• System-generated messages for branch and Contact Centre employees are still being used and developed. They show how to solve client problems properly and to which department a given request / inquiry should be directed. This makes it possible to shorten waiting time and avoid notifications erroneously recorded as complaints.
• In 2021 a project called “Direction towards Quality” was established. The project’s main assumptions are as follows:
  • Regular e-mail education for employees of the Client Relations Department who are responsible for examining client complaints.
  • Regular workshops on plain language – employee skills in writing in plain language are constantly being refined. In 2021 the Bank cooperated with a plain language expert from the Plain Polish Workshop and trained plain language consultants. Another series of training sessions was conducted on the rules of plain language for employees in the Client Relations Department.
  • The monthly qualitative evaluation of responses to complaints – the Bank evaluates texts in the following terms:
    • – the merits and the solution of clients’ problems
    • – the structure of the information (visual transparency)
    • – crafting sentences in accordance with the rules of plain language maintaining relations.
• In 2021 the Bank has devised and implemented a number of improvements in the application to review complaints to enhance the effectiveness of complaints handling. They help preserve the binding standards in respect of the timeliness of examining complaints and procuring a high standard of replies. The largest change was implemented in May 2021 and it pertained to preparing replies to complaints. At present, employees can prepare and edit replies regardless of the channel of response directly in the application in which complaints are examined. It contains a database of response templates which every employee can use. This database is constantly being developed to include new content, which is vetted by plain language consultants.
• The implementation of monitoring and reporting tools to control better the quality of the process, its timeliness and efficiency.
• Implementing a reporting centre to share knowledge about the opinions and claims of clients with the overall Bank and the owners of products and processes.
• Implementing a new motivation system combining employee evaluation and motivation in both aspects: productivity and quality development.
• By devising the rules for cooperation between different units in the Bank the information coming from complaints is used to streamline products and processes and prevent prospective grievances.

Complaint reports are forwarded to the people responsible for individual products and processes. This allows the Bank to analyze the quality of services it offers on an ongoing basis and take optimization measures. A broad range of ratios in the complaints area is reported, while the effects of the entire complaints handling process are presented regularly at the Process and Operational Risk Committee meetings and also at the meetings of the Supervisory Board Audit Committee.

Group companies manage complaints on their own. Millennium Leasing has in place the procedure for submitting and reviewing complaints submitted by the clients. Millennium Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych (TFI, investment fund management company) offers its products through distributors of units and does not have direct contact with clients. Clients’ complaints are submitted to Millennium TFI and distributors alike. The Bank reviews complaints related to client service provided by its employees. When it comes to the quality of products offered by Millennium TFI, complaints are handled under an engagement from the TFI by the transfer agent who keeps registers of participants and executes transactions pertaining to units. In the Brokerage House, complaints are handled jointly with the Bank when they pertained to the services rendered by Bank Millennium as an Agent of Millennium DM.