Dubai Customs handles 90% of customer complaints lodged in 2013

Dubai Customs has recently upgraded its customer complaint receipt and processing service to ensure higher client satisfaction.  The new milestone enables efficient and timely handling of all complaints, cutting the customers’ waiting time while responding to their requests instantly.

The Customer Management Department at Dubai Customs received 99 complaints in 2013 through the Dubai Government's Unified Complaints and Suggestions System, all of which were immediately referred to concerned departments and followed up by  DC’s higher management to make sure they are resolved promptly. Around 90% of these complaints were handled within a maximum of 48 hours from the receipt date. The remaining ones which need coordination with other entities are worked on and tracked to ensure they are resolved without any delay. The complainant is notified with the time needed to resolve his/her grievance.

Dubai Customs follows a clearly defined approach in dealing with customer complaints.  Developed by DC’s Customer Management Department, this mechanism is geared to achieve the best possible handling of  complaints in order to enhance the satisfaction of customers who are regarded as key partners in the continued development of customs operations.

Samira Abdul Razzak, Director of Customer Management Department at Dubai Customs, said:” We welcome our customers’ complaints as a source of service improvement. We are committed to follow up on all complaints that we receive with respective departments to ensure these complaints are completely resolved. We implement Dubai Government’s Unified Complaint System. When a customer files a complaint concerning Dubai Customs operations, the Unified Complaint System transfers it to the Complaint Section at the Customer Management Department, which in turn refers it to the department in question to resolve it and follows up with the department until the complaint is fully resolved. The complaint follow-up mechanism also falls under the unified government system, as it is verified through direct government supervision”      

Ms Abdul Razzak added: “We view customer complaints as development proposals that help us improve our performance and the way we work. They are carefully studied to be later turned into future procedures that ensure DC’s performance development “.

She further noted, “We have multiple channels to receive complaints; customers can lodge complaints in person at customs centres, online, or using smart services. We believe in face-to-face interaction with customers, so we developed an Open Door policy and many platforms to boost interaction with stakeholders. A clear example of these platforms is the “DC Consultative Council”, where the Director General of Dubai Customs along with the Top Management meet with all business sectors and interact with them as they voice their needs. We also conduct regular meetings with customers’ operations representatives in each sector, in addition to the “Client Ambassadors” initiative, through which our employees go to customers’ offices to ask for their ideas and suggestions that can contribute to their businesses growth, and work on implementing these ideas.”

Dubai Customs highly values customer complaints as a feedback tool and a means of service development. DC is committed to resolving all complaints effectively, efficiently, fairly and fast and continuously seeks to keep pace with best practices worldwide in this field.