The Cheltenham Trust Unacceptable Customer Behaviour

Purpose

The Cheltenham Trust believes that all staff, volunteers, trustees and users of Trust facilities deserve to be treated with respect, empathy and dignity in their place of work.

This policy means we can manage poor customer behaviour consistently and fairly. It sets out clearly what we consider to be unacceptable and the steps we may take to deal with such behaviour. It applies to everyone who accesses our services to help us protect our team members from abuse and harm.

Principles

You can expect that our team members will always:

  • provide a fair, open, proportionate, and accessible service
  • listen and understand
  • treat everyone who contacts us with respect, empathy, and dignity
  • respond to complaints in line with The Cheltenham Trust complaints policy

We expect people accessing our services to:

  • be courteous to staff, volunteers, trustees and other customers at all times
  • engage with us in a way that does not hamper our ability to carry out our work effectively, efficiently and safely for the benefit of all our customers OR users of our services
  • In addition to this policy, customers are asked also asked to adhere to any additional rules that are set out in individual venues, or as part of any membership or hire agreement.

Definition of unacceptable behaviour

Unacceptable behaviour means acting in a way that is unreasonable, regardless of the level of someone’s stress, frustration or anger. It may involve acts, words or physical gestures that could cause another person distress or discomfort.

Aggressive or abusive behaviour

This is behaviour or language (written or spoken) that could cause our staff, trustees or other customers to feel afraid, threatened or abused. This includes threatening emails, telephone calls, meetings, and comments on social media or elsewhere.

For example:

  • insulting or degrading language, including inappropriate banter, innuendo or malicious allegations
  • shouting
  • any form of physical violence or verbal threats of physical violence
  • derogatory racist, sexist, ageist, or homophobic remarks
  • uninvited touching
  • offensive gestures
  • using, brandishing or throwing weapons or objects aiming to inflict harm
  • stalking or other forms of harassment
  • comments relating to disability, perceived gender, religion, belief, or any other personal characteristic
  • publishing unacceptable information on social media, websites, newspapers, etc

Unreasonable demands and vexatious complaints (OR unacceptable persistent contact)

Customers might make requests that we cannot reasonably accommodate. This may include but is not limited to:

  • the amount of information they seek
  • the nature and scale of service they expect
  • the volume of correspondence they generate
  • a remedy or outcome that cannot be achieved

Customers/service users may persist in disagreeing with the action or decision taken in relation to their concerns or they may contact the trust persistently about the same issue(s).

We accept that someone who is persistent is not necessarily guilty of unacceptable behaviour. What is seen as an unreasonable demand will depend on the circumstances of each case. We will always consider each complaint on its own merits.

The behaviour of someone who persistently contacts us about the same issue, when that issue has been dealt with in line with the Trust’s usual processes, can, in some circumstances, amount to unreasonable demands. Such behaviour takes up a disproportionate amount of our time and resource and can impact on service provision.

Examples of behaviour which we consider as unreasonable include but are not limited to:

  • refusing to follow our complaints procedure
  • persistently pursuing a complaint where the Trust’s complaints procedure has been fully and properly implemented and exhausted
  • contacting us repeatedly and frequently without giving us enough time to respond to previous correspondence
  • insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff when a suitable alternative has been offered
  • visiting staff without a prior appointment
  • focusing disproportionately on a matter in relation to its significance and continuing to focus on this point despite receiving proportionate responses addressing the matter
  • adopting a ‘scatter gun’ approach: pursuing parallel complaints about the same issue with different members of staff
  • unwelcome sexual advances or suggestive behaviour towards customers, staff, volunteers or Trustees
  • threatening or using actual physical violence towards customers, staff or trustees
  • being personally abusive or verbally aggressive towards staff dealing with their issue or their associates
  • contacting staff or trustees outside of the workplace
  • contacting staff or trustees by phone outside of business hours
  • visiting staff or trustees’ homes
  • recording meetings or conversations (whether face-to-face or on the telephone) without the prior knowledge or consent of other people involved
  • naming of individual members of staff or trustees on social media
  • not following staff instructions that relate to health and safety

How we will respond to incidents of unacceptable behaviour

We do not expect our employees to tolerate unacceptable behaviour when communicating with our customers. When this happens, our employees have the right to:

  • place callers on hold
  • end the call
  • not reply to an abusive email or letter – we will only review these communications to ensure no new issues have been raised
  • remove themselves from a face to face situation

Before taking such action, we will always warn customers that they are behaving in an unacceptable way to give them the chance to change their behaviour. However, a warning will not be given in extreme cases to protect our staff, for example, when a physical threat is made.

Where these circumstances arise, we will take the following steps:

  • customers will be asked to modify their behaviour with an explanation
  • if the behaviour continues to be unacceptable, our employees will remove themselves from the situation. If the communication is by telephone, the caller will be told that the call will end
  • encourage all our employees to report any language or behaviour they feel to be contrary to this policy and take all such reports very seriously
  • the employee will inform their manager who will keep a record of the incident. In all cases a manager will investigate the situation and decide what action to take. This could include limiting a customer’s contact with us
  • consider whether a communication restriction is warranted
  • we’ll refer the matter to the police where a criminal offence has been threatened or committed

Communication restrictions

If customers continue to behave unacceptably, a senior manager can put in place a temporary or permanent communication restriction on a customer. If we decide to do this, we will tell the customer that we are doing so, setting out:

  • why we consider their behaviour unacceptable
  • what action we are taking and if there is a time limit on the restrictions

If we decide to limit communication, we will make a note of the limitation in our records.

Communication might be:

  • limited to being conducted in writing
  • limited to a specific individual
  • removed from the Trust’s social media and be blocked from our accounts
  • limited to a specific email address or telephone number
  • placed on file without a further response if the issued raised in the correspondence has previously been considered
  • limited in other ways which we consider appropriate in the circumstances, in line with this policy

In addition, we reserve the right to:

  • limit telephone contact to set times on set days
  • restrict contact to a nominated employee who will deal with all future calls or correspondence
  • restrict the issues on which we will correspond
  • block emails or telephone numbers if the number and length of communications sent is excessive
  • refuse to consider a complaint or any further contact in exceptional circumstances
  • ban customers or users from our buildings either on a temporary or permanent basis
  • take any other action which we consider necessary or appropriate to make this policy effective.

Where circumstances are serious enough to warrant further restrictions, we may take legal action to prevent further contact/poor behaviour.

Customer Complaints Policy

All complainants are expected to adhere to The Cheltenham Trust’s Customer Charter when communicating with the Trust. The policy can be found on the Trust’s website. Please click here.