Grievance Redressal Mechanism

Overview:

Prompt and efficient Customer Service is the key to success of any service organization. To maintain a consistent business growth, it is necessary to widen the customer base as well as retain the existing customers. Jagaran Microfin Private Limited aims to satisfy the customers and delight them with our services.
In any thriving organisation, there are always some instances of complaints that may arise. To mitigate those instances, our Grievance Redressal Mechanism for customers and the procedure the employees at Jagaran need to follow when such complaints arise are laid down in the following paragraphs.

Objectives:

The policy document aims to minimize the instances of Customer Complaints through proper service delivery and review mechanism and to ensure prompt redressal of customer’s grievances. The review mechanism would help in identifying shortcomings in product features and service delivery. Hence, the Policy objectives are as follows:

To provide clients formal and informal channels for feedback and suggestions.
To provide a formal grievance redressal mechanism for clients.
To educate customers on grievance redressal mechanism.
To ensure that clients are protected against fraud, deception, or unethical practices.
To handle/resolve complaints speedily and efficiently.
To consistently assess the impact of services in order to serve clients better.

Scope:

The following document serves to provide the details of Grievance Redressal Mechanism for customers and the procedure the employees of JAGARAN need to follow when such a complaint arises.

Modes of Complaint:

Considering our customer profile, their literacy level and vulnerability, JAGARAN has identified various channels of accepting customer complaints proactively.

Customer Enquiries / Complaints received at field:

Customers can submit their written or verbal enquiries / complaints to any Jagaran staff who meets them at any forum such as center meetings, CGTs, GRTs, exit interviews and centre leader’s meetings etc. These enquiries / complaints shall be forwarded to Branch Manager / Assistant Branch Manager of the branch or Grievance Redressal Cell of H.O if needed, for further follow-up and resolution.

Customer walk-ins at branches:

Verbal Complaints – BM / ABM or RO will record the complaints and provide the solutions.

Written Complaints – The Customer can also submit written complaints(in the Complaint box) which shall be addressed to the Branch staff.If the problem remain unresolved within the TAT, the escalation process shall be followed.

Borrower Call - ins:

Borrower calls to branch’s phone number – BM/ABM or RO of the branch will record the complaint, do the follow ups and provides the resolution.
Customer calls to Grievance Redressal Cell Number- Helpdesk representatives will record the complaint , escalate to the supervisors who can resolve problem and provide the customer with a solution. If the solution of the complaint is not provided within 30 days , the customer may escalate it to The Officer-In-Charge, Regional Office, Department of Non-Banking Supervision, Reserve Bank of India, 15 N.S. Road, Kolkata-700001.

Internal Complaint

Internal staff Jagaran can also raise a complaint on behalf of a customer and forward it to the Grievance Redressal Officer of the Head Office( e.g internal auditors can inform if they have any customer grievances during their customer meets) . Grievance Redressal Officer shall investigate the issue and provide appropriate resolution to the customer.

Whistleblower:

A whistleblower is a Jagaran employee who registers a complaint against a colleague who may be allegedly involved in prohibited activities and breaches the code of conduct through acts of fraud, misappropriation of funds, unethical behaviour, mistreatment of customers etc. The members of staff are encouraged to be whistleblowers and send their report on suspicion of malafide intention of staff wherever and whenever warranted without fear to CEO through proper channel.

External Complaints:

Complaints received from( on behalf of customer or based on public interest) general public & other stake holders such as Govt. agencies, Reserve Bank of India, police, lawyers, industry ombudsman(MFIN etc.) & social activists will also be recorded at either branch level or regional or zonal level and provided with appropriate solutions. Hence, any staff who receives complaints from such agencies should escalate them to the Grievance Redressal Officer immediately.

Complaint Resolution Process:

Turn- around Time: -

All complaints will be resolved within the specified time at each level mentioned herein below:

Branch level – BM/ABM & R.O. – 5 working days
Head Office Level – Help Desk:- 7 working days
Grievance Redressal Cell – 10 working days

Escalation:-

All complaints which are not resolved within 5 working days from receipt of customer complaint by BM/ABM or R.O or within 7 days by H.O, Help Desk Team then the same should be escalated to Grievance Redressal Officer of the Head Office. Grievance Redressal Officer should provide the resolution to customer within 10 working days from the receipt of the complaint.

Internal Process

All grievances will be segregated based on their severity and criticality.Severity here is defined as the intensity of loss to the customer and to the Company. Grievances if necessary will be forwarded to the concerned departments/Branch for further action.

In the event when staff of Jagaran are in the field and have encountered an issue where a customer or group of customers have come across with issues such as fraud, misbehaviour etc. then the staff may raise the issue through Internal Complaint to be send to the Grievance Redressal Cell. The grievances of the customers will be categorized in four levels based on their severity.

The table depicts as an example mentioned below:

Issue	*Level 1	**Level 2	***Level 3	****Level 4
Fraud Cases	Yes
Staff Misbehavior		Yes
Service Delays or Service Defects			Yes
Others				Yes

Note: This list will be amended as per need
*Level 1: Integrity Issues, Revenue Loss, etc.
**Level 2: Disciplinary, Misbehaviour concerns, etc.
***Level 3: Disbursements delays, loan application delays, center meeting delays, etc.
****Level 4: Other such as Co-ordination concerns in customer’s group, centre, meeting place etc.

All level of grievances will be treated equally with the same sense of urgency and speed. However, the resolution given and the action taken might vary depending on the severity.

Reporting & Review Mechanisms :

All the grievance and complaints collected via phone calls, walk-ins & mail-ins are properly recorded at branch level as well as at H.O level based on its merit. The Grievance Redressal Cell is responsible to conduct data analysis, on trends/comparisons/other key matrices, and submits the reports to various levels of leadership teams for further action and review.

Monthly- Reports will be submitted to the Head of Controls and Compliance
Quarterly- Reports will be submitted to Board of Directors during the meetings of Board of Directors.

Roles and Responsibilities

The following individuals and departments have onus when complaint is raised.

BM/ABM/RO: These personnel are placed at the Branch and are available for the customers to place their complaints directly through walk-ins or phone calls.

Help Desk Representatives: Head Office has a Help Desk Team that works from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm on week days. All complaints will be registered and resolved through phone.They will follow the grievance redressal escalation process, if the resolution is not found in the given time frame.

Grievance Redressal Officer: The Grievance Redressal Officer is responsible to ensure timely resolution of critical/unresolved issues which are escalated. For final escalation the Grievance Redressal Officer is responsible for submitting periodical reports on status of customer grievances to the Head of Controls and Compliance and to the Board.

Staff Training:

All field staff should be trained and sensitized on their role in implementation of Grievance Redressal System and Processes for customers and implementation of Code of Conduct at lease Once in a year.
All concerned departments (e.g HR, Audit etc.) should be sensitized on their role in implementation of Grievance Redressal System and Processes for customers and implementation of Code of Conduct.
Customer Care Representatives shall be trained fully once a year and should undergo quarterly refresher training.
Basic training modules for new joinees shall include a session on grievance redressal mechanism.

Client Education:

Past experience shows that customers are not used to escalate their complaints beyond their direct interface i.e field staff. Dealing with remote interface for getting their complaints resolved is still evolving and needs lots of efforts in bringing awareness among our customers. Customer education on grievance redressal procedure is now more essential. Hence, below are the steps to be taken to ensure all our customers are aware of the complaint resolution mechanism.

Our loan card/loan agreements will display helpline numbers and also the grievance redressal process flow.
Compulsory Group Training(CGT) for new customers will include a section on Grievance Redressal Process(GRP)
A copy of Grievance Redressal Process will also be published in Jagaran’s website(www.jagaranmf.com) for the information of customers and other stake holders.

Grievance Redressal Procedure

Customers who wish to send their complaint/feedback over any issue can use the following channels within 10.00 am & 6.00 pm on Working days.

LEVEL 1:

Members can call the Relationship Officer/Branch Manager at (Local Branch Contact number)

LEVEL 2:

If any customer is not satisfied with the response received at the branch level or if she doesn’t receive a response within 5 days from branch, she is requested to call /contact our Nodal Officer/Help Desk at Head Office to register her complaints as mentioned hereunder:
Toll-Free Number: 18003450100
Or
Land Line Number: 033-22628207

LEVEL 3:

If any customer is not satisfied with the response received from Nodal Officer or Help Desk within 7 days then can escalate the matter to Grievance Redressal Officer. The contact number is mentioned here under:

Contact details of Grievance Redressal Officer as under:
Grievance Redressal Officer
Mr. Supratim Sinha
Contact Number: +91-8017523771
Email: customercare@jagaranmf.com
Jagaran Microfin Pvt. Ltd
38, Hemanta Basu Sarani, 5^th Floor
Kolkata -700 001

Level 4:

MFIN Toll Free Number: 18001021080

Level 5:

Department of Non Banking Supervision , RBI
5^th Floor, 15, N.S. Road,
Kolkata-700001.

policy in vernacular language :-
GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL POLICY BENGALI
GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL POLICY HINDI
GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL POLICY ODISHA
GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL POLICY ASSAMESE