{"id":5883,"date":"2026-07-15T12:52:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T12:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fasterdraft.com\/?post_type=product&#038;p=5883"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:00:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:00:54","slug":"customer-complaints-policy","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/fasterdraft.com\/uk\/product\/customer-complaints-policy","title":{"rendered":"Customer Complaints Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What is the Complaint Policy?<\/h2>\n<p>A complaints policy is a written document that sets out how your business receives, acknowledges, investigates, and resolves customer complaints, as well as what customers can do if they remain unhappy after your internal process has concluded. This policy remains a single reference point for your customers and your business, explaining exactly how the complaints process should be handled from A to Z.<\/p>\n<p>The present complaints policy template can be used by small and mid-sized businesses operating both offline and online across the UK and selling various types of goods and services. This professionally structured and bespoke template from FasterDraft defines key elements of this policy, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>business details (name, address);<\/li>\n<li>how the complaint should be submitted;<\/li>\n<li>list of information should be included in the complaint;<\/li>\n<li>list of satisfactory solutions that can be offered to the customer, including discount, credit, voucher, and replacement;<\/li>\n<li>list of external bodies to which additional complaints can be submitted, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why choose FasterDraft for the complaints policy template UK?<\/h2>\n<p>By customising this policy template with FasterDraft, you get the following benefits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Quick to deploy<\/strong>. Answer a structured set of questions about how your business operates \u2014 online, in-store, or both \u2014 and get a complete, ready-to-publish policy in the time it would take to book a first call with a solicitor.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lawyer-reviewed language<\/strong>. Our templates are created by qualified UK solicitors in line with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/ukpga\/2015\/15\/contents\"><em>Consumer Rights Act 2015<\/em><\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/uksi\/2013\/3134\/contents\"><em>Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013<\/em><\/a>, and other applicable legislation.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>No AI<\/strong><\/em>. We do not sell generic legal documents, documents suitable for use across multiple jurisdictions, templates available for free on the Internet, or templates created by AI.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>Plain English, genuinely accessible<\/strong><\/em>. The wording of the template is friendly and customer-facing. It does not include complex legal wording. The policy is written so that both your staff and your customers can read it and immediately understand what happens next.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Important clauses to include in the complaints policy and procedure template for a UK business<\/h2>\n<p>Every complaints policy for customers should be based on the three main pillars:<\/p>\n<h3>Receipt of the complaints, including anonymous complaints<\/h3>\n<p>The policy shall set a clear list of means of communication by which the customer can submit their complaint, for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>email;<\/li>\n<li>telephone;<\/li>\n<li>by completing the online form on the website; or<\/li>\n<li>several methods from the above.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once the complaint is accepted, the policy must set a clear commitment to acknowledging every complaint. Therefore, the policy must define how the business will recognise complaints and other concerns when they are raised, whether the acknowledgement is sent in writing, and how it will confirm receipt within a clear timeline, usually within three working days or, in some cases, within five working days.<\/p>\n<p>Last but not least, every complaint needs an owner. The policy shall identify which named staff member within the organisation is responsible for handling first-line complaints.<\/p>\n<h3>Resolving the complaints and issuing a final response<\/h3>\n<p>The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives consumers a structured ladder of remedies for problems with goods and services, and a professionally drafted customer complaints policy and procedure template should explain how the business will investigate concerns, explain its findings, and resolve complaints when a complaint is upheld. A professionally drafted customer complaints policy and procedure template must reflect all of them, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>right to repair or replace the faulty goods;<\/li>\n<li>right to a price reduction or discount;<\/li>\n<li>right to credit or vouchers;<\/li>\n<li>right to refund.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>External complaint mechanism<\/h3>\n<p>The text of the policy must outline signposting to external bodies once the customer is willing to escalate their complaint further, and if they remain dissatisfied, it should also inform them of an internal appeal stage before or alongside the dispute resolution suggested by the business. An appeal can be made in writing within 28 days of the response.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on the type of business and sector, the following additional mechanisms for the complaint should be offered:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ombudsman;<\/li>\n<li>regulated authority (provided the business&#8217;s activity is regulated);<\/li>\n<li>professional body (provided the business is a party to a professional body or organisation);<\/li>\n<li>Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schema,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Top 5 things to include in the complaints policy to make it legally compliant in the UK, including relevant legislation<\/h2>\n<p>Businesses and companies selling goods and services to customers in the UK must ensure that their complaints policies include the following information:<\/p>\n<h3>UK GDPR and data-retention guidance<\/h3>\n<p>Every complaint you receive and log involves personal data, including the complainant&#8217;s name, contact details, and often details of what they bought and when. If your online business retains information about the debit or credit cards used, all that information also constitutes &#8220;personal data&#8221;. Your complaints handling must comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, including having a clear, proportionate retention period for complaint records (long enough to defend against a later dispute or regulatory query, short enough not to hold data indefinitely without justification) and a lawful basis for processing (typically legitimate interests, for handling and resolving the complaint itself).<\/p>\n<h3>Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes<\/h3>\n<p>Once there is an ongoing dispute between the business and the customer which cannot be dealt with by the available means, a standard complaints policy should provide alternative methods for dispute resolution involving third parties. For most UK businesses selling goods or services, the correct legal framework is the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015. Under these Regulations, the businesses operating in the UK have to provide their clients and customers with other means of resolving a dispute by referring them to ADR providers. Most general retail and trades businesses refer their customers to a Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) approved ADR provider relevant to their sector.<\/p>\n<h3>Statutory Remedies<\/h3>\n<p>The provisions of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 provide a minimum required standard that all businesses should be able to offer their consumers in the UK in case of remedies. That means that businesses cannot lower these statutory remedies by offering less in the text of their complaints policy templates.<\/p>\n<h3>Mandatory Cooling-off period<\/h3>\n<p>When the business sells online, by phone, or door-to-door, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/uksi\/2013\/3134\/contents\"><em>Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013<\/em><\/a> give customers a 14-day statutory cooling-off right during which any purchase made can be cancelled on the grounds of &#8220;change of mind&#8221;. The text of the policy should clearly address that the change of mind does not depend on whether the goods are faulty or not.<\/p>\n<h3>Check Methods of Communication<\/h3>\n<p>If the provisions of your complaints policy provide specific means of communication to submit the complaints, including telephone or email, make sure the customers can reach you using that means of communication. If the business uses a hotline for its customers to submit complaints, under Regulation 41 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, the business cannot charge more than the basic rate for a dedicated telephone line that customers use to contact the business.<\/p>\n<h2>Things to avoid when drafting a complaint procedure policy template<\/h2>\n<p>If you are planning to draft a complaint policy template from scratch, be aware of the most common legal mistakes UK businesses usually make:<\/p>\n<h3>Mistake 1: Publishing a policy with no internal timeframes attached<\/h3>\n<p>A solid and well-written complaints procedure policy template should not only detail the process itself, but also the precise timeline. Without such a timeline, your business cannot be held accountable. Moreover, such an incomplete policy gives customers no way to know whether they&#8217;re being treated fairly. This is the reason number one for most disputes between customers and businesses.<\/p>\n<h3>Mistake 2: Signposting to the wrong external body<\/h3>\n<p>If you advise your customers to complain further to external regulatory bodies, including ombudsmen or professional bodies, make sure you refer to the right third party. For example, sending a retail or services customer to the Legal Ombudsman or the Law Society of England and Wales may not be relevant, which may result in the customer&#8217;s frustration and lead the dispute straight to the court.<\/p>\n<h3>Mistake 3: Treating every complaint the same way regardless of severity<\/h3>\n<p>Whether you are drafting a complaints policy template for a small business or a well-established chain of stores, a policy should not provide an identical process for complaints of different levels of severity. For example, a missing button on a jumper and a serious safety defect are not the same complaint. Therefore, the different timeline and response time should be provided based on the circumstances of the complaint, and the policy should ask customers to describe the nature of the issue clearly and without jargon so your team can deal with the complaint fully.<\/p>\n<h2>How to customise this complaints policy template?<\/h2>\n<p>To get a fully customisable document template, follow a few easy steps below:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click the &#8220;Create Document&#8221; button to open the template.<\/li>\n<li>Answer simple questions in the form.<\/li>\n<li>Select a preferred template format for download &#8211; PDF or Word.<\/li>\n<li>E-sign the document online (optional).<\/li>\n<li>Make a payment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The document is ready for instant digital download immediately after the purchase. You can publish it on the official website for your business or place a hard copy in one of your offline stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Complaint Policy? A complaints policy is a written document that sets out how your business receives, acknowledges, investigates, and resolves customer complaints, as well as what customers can do if they remain unhappy after your internal process has concluded. This policy remains a single reference point for your customers and your business, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[146],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-5883","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-ecommerce-legal-templates","first","instock","virtual","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Customer Complaints Policy for Small Business - UK Template<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Download a solicitor-drafted fully customisable complaints policy template for online and offline business in the UK. No subscription. 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