Customer Grievance Redressal Mechanism
Premium Finlease Private Limited
Table of Contents
1. Preamble ................................................................................................................................................3
2. Policy Objectives ....................................................................................................................................3
3. Scope and Applicability ...........................................................................................................................3
4. Definitions ...............................................................................................................................................3
5. Process Design ......................................................................................................................................4
5.1. Principles .......................................................................................................................................4
5.2. Implications for Process design.......................................................................................................4
6. Categorization of Calls or Grievances ......................................................................................................5
7. The Mechanism ......................................................................................................................................7
7.1. Channels available for customers ...................................................................................................7
7.2. Turnaround Time ............................................................................................................................7
7.3. Escalation Matrix ............................................................................................................................7
8. Grievance Resolution Process ................................................................................................................8
9. Communication to staff ...........................................................................................................................9
10. Communication to customers ..............................................................................................................9
Customer Grievance Redressal Mechanism
1. Preamble
Premium finlease has put in place a robust grievance redressal mechanism for customers. One of the
key tenets of quality customer service is providing opportunities for customers to raise grievances
and seek a satisfactory resolution. Additionally, the regulations (and self-regulations) for the
microfinance institutions require institutions to have this mechanism in place. The industry code of
conduct of MFIN and Sa-dhan and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) vide its direction for- Non-
Banking Financial Company –Non-Systemically Important Non-Deposit taking Company (Reserve
Bank) Directions, 2016 has directed all NBFCs to have a Grievance Redressal System in place. This
Policy is updated to align with the fourth edition of Code of Conduct released in October 2022.
2. Policy Objectives
To provide Premium finlease’s customers convenient and effective channels to raise complaints
with respect to process, services or any queries.
To take timely and appropriate action on customer grievances.
To maintain a database of customer complaints and use the data to make decisions on products,
services and improving overall quality of customer service
To provide timely reports to SROs about the complaints and resolution provided.
3. Scope and Applicability
This policy shall apply to all customers of Premium finlease irrespective of the products they availed (including
group loans, individual loans, hospital cash insurance, credit life insurance etc.).
4. Definitions
a. Board: Board means the Board of Directors of Premium finlease.
b. Caller or a complainant: Anyone who is currently a member of an active group or any exit
customer, spouse or immediate family of the client can make the call to complain.
c. Customer: Any person who has availed of any product or service with Premium finlease.
d. Grievance: A formal complaint raised either in writing or through electronic mode over something
believed to be wrong or unfair or alleging deficiency in the product or service provided or a service
request or a query or request for information on the products or services of the company.
e. Grievance Redressal Officer: As per the MFIN code of conduct and RBI fair practices code the
VP Audit is designated as the Grievance Redressal Officer (GRO), who is responsible for grievance
redressal. GRO can designate to someone to receive calls on a day-to-day basis.
f. IIC (Interdepartmental Investigations Committee): This is a high-level committee constituted of
‘CEO’ and ‘CFO & CIO’ along with VP Audit to investigate the complaints forwarded to them as part
of the grievance process.
g. Resolution: A formal statement of decision or opinion provided in response to the query, service
request or complaint raised by customers.
h. Turnaround Time (TAT): The number of days taken to resolve and communicate the decision to
customers or complainants.
5. Process Design
5.1. Principles
Premium finlease's grievance redressal process is designed with the following principles:
A. Customer's perspective:
1. Easy to use: It should be easy and convenient for the customer to communicate her problem to
Premium finlease
2. Transparency: The process of how a grievance is being resolved should be clear to all
concerned parties
3. Timeliness: Once a grievance is registered, that should be communicated to the customer within a
bounded time period. No complaint should be left open indefinitely.
4. Quality of solution: The solution provided by Premium finlease should be appropriate, practical and
relevant
B. Company's perspective:
1. Fairness: Premium finlease applies the principal of fairness while receiving and recording complaints
and it acknowledges the right of customers to air their grievances without the fear of retribution or impact
for their loans
2. Use complaints data for actionable insights: Premium finlease records all the calls or complaints
received, track them till resolution and use the information for improving products and services
5.2. Implications for Process design
Design Principle
Implementation guideline
Ease of use
● Customer should have at least one central point to raise the complaints which they
are not comfortable raising directly with the branch staff
● Customer should not need to follow up to get resolution on her complaint.
Transparent
● At any point in time, customer or CGR committee should be able to get details of
what stage of resolution the complaint is at.
● There should be clarity on who will be assigned a complaint, what is the expected
time to close the issue, and the levels of escalation and follow up.
Timeliness
● No compliant will be left open for more than two months, with at least 90% of the
complaints getting resolved within one month.
● There will be a clear set of timelines for resolving complaints, depending on the type
of complaint.
● When a customer is given a date by which his complaint will be resolved, all efforts
should be made to see that the date is honored. If the complaint resolution is taking
longer than expected, the customer should be informed.
Quality of service
● Regular checks will be done with customers whose complaints have been resolved,
to see if they are happy with the resolution provided by Premium finlease to their
complaint.
Monitor customer satisfaction with the grievance process.
Fairness
● All complaints and calls should be recorded even if there is no action possible on
them. Complaints from external sources such as MFIN, Sa-dhan or complaints
received by the RBI shall all be recorded along with the complaints received on
Premium finlease’s channels.
● Customers shall be informed of their right to complaint without any fear of retribution.
● All complaints shall be treated fairly and shall be resolved within reasonable time.
Use complaints
data for actionable
● There should be mechanisms to collect information for any serious allegation that
is leveled against a specific branch or staff. As such the complaints shall be
Design Principle
Implementation guideline
insights
categorized into severe and non-severe and severe complaints are escalated
immediately to senior management.
6. Categorization of Calls or Grievances
Premium finlease follows the categorization suggested by MFIN. All the calls or grievances received should
be categorized first into the following broad categories. These categories are based on the underlying reason.
Category
Description
Queries
Enquiries by customers or non-customers seeking loan, loan application
related enquiries, loan account related enquiries. It could also be raised by
customers seeking details with respect to terms and conditions, installment
date and venue, outstanding balance, contact details of branch or staff etc.
Covers calls to enquire about Premium finlease’s rules and procedures for loan
approval,
loan eligibility conditions or the outcome of the loan approval process.
Service requests
Requests by existing customers to provide/update KYCs or loan related
documents, requests for changing time/venue of collection meetings,
foreclosure requests, seeking time for delayed payments due to exigencies,
death claim intimation etc.
Complaints or
Grievances
Calls or requests or information from the existing customers or their family
members pertaining to any of the following issues (in the next table) should be
categorized as complaints. Any calls or texts or emails forwarded or shared by
the SROs (MFIN or Sa-dhan) and RBI which were received by them against
Premium finlease should also be recorded in this category.
The complaints or grievances are further categorized into the following sub-categories:
Complaint
Sub-
Category
Description
Interest rates
Incomplete disclosure, excessive
interest rates being charged etc.
Excessive charges
Commission demanded for loan
sanctioning, penalty charges for
late repayment, foreclosure or any
other charges collected from
Customer over and above the
limits prescribed by RBI
Insurance claim
settlement
Claim submission issues or claim
settlement delays etc.
Complaint
Sub-
Category
Description
Recovery practices
Complaints against field/branch
staff/recovery agents for not
visiting center at prescribed
time/place, rude/ unprofessional
behaviour towards Customers,
coercive recovery practices etc
Mis-selling or forced
selling of third-party
products
Bundling product sell with loan,
not disclosing product features,
terms and conditions attached to
loan, complaint resolution
mechanism etc
Digital transactions
Loan sanctioned but money not
transferred to account on same
day, cash card related issues etc.
Updating of
repayment records
Loan documents not provided to
Customers; receipts not
given/loan cards not updated by
staff etc.
Updation/dispute on
data in Credit
Information Report
(CIR)
Customer data not
updated/wrongly updated with
credit information bureau by the
MFI
Fraud conducted by
staff
MFI staff has been reported to
be involved in any fraud.
Fraud Conducted by
external agencies
Customer has been duped by an
external agency using the name
of the MFI
Others (Please specify
the categories)
Other complaints received
Complaint
Sub-
Category
Description
In addition to the above categories and sub-categories, the complaints are tagged as severe and non-severe,
with severe cases taking precedence in resolution and will be reported and resolved through the IIC.
Examples of severe cases / calls / complaints are: fraud committed by staff, staff misbehavior with customers,
recovery practices, excessive charges, and fraud conducted by external agencies.
7. The Mechanism
7.1. Channels available for customers
Premium finlease makes available the following channels for customers to register their complaints
or queries or service requests.
1. Walk-in to the branch: During branch opening hours, customers can walk into the branch and
register a complaint with the assistant branch manager who is available at the branch.
2. Dedicated, centralized helpline number: Customers or their family members can reach out to the
dedicated helpline number “9769616817” between 10 am to 5:30 pm on working days.
3. Email and Letter: Customers or their family members can send an email to info Premium
finlease.in or a
letter to Premium finlease’s Corporate Office address
- Grievance Redressal Officer
Premium finlease Microfinance Pvt Ltd
Office No. 473/474, Auto Market Hishar, Haryana
7.2. Turnaround Time
The maximum turnaround time (TAT) for resolution of complaints received directly by Premium finlease is 30
days (from the date of receipt of the complaint/call/letter). The maximum TAT for resolution of complaints
received indirectly via SROs (MFIN and Sa-dhan) and RBI is 15 days.
If there is no response to complaints within 7 days of customers lodging a complaint or if customers are not
satisfied with the resolution provided, they can follow the below mentioned escalation matrix.
7.3. Escalation Matrix
Escalation Level
Description
Contact Information
First level
If the branch does not
provide a resolution or
respond within 7 days,
contact the customer
helpline number provided
Helpline number:
9996188699
Second level
If there is no response or
resolution within 15 days of
GRO - Austin, Ph:9996244489
+
calling the telephone number,
contact the GRO
number provided
hrm@Premium finlease.in
Third level
If there is no response or
resolution within the
stipulated time from Premium
finlease, contact MFIN’s
grievance
redressal number provided
Fourth level
If there is no response or
resolution within the
stipulated time from the
above levels, contact RBI’s
officer in-charge of the
Department of Non-Banking
Supervision under whose
jurisdiction the registered
office of Premium finlease falls
under
8. Grievance Resolution Process
All the calls or complaints received from all the channels (branches, centralized helpline number and emails
or letters) are recorded in electronic format to enable analysis, reporting and resolution process. The
complaints received at the branches by ABM are recorded in the Premium finlease Home Application (SHA)
which is linked to PowerBI dashboards used by Business team, the calls received on dedicated helpline
number are recorded in a spreadsheet template and complaints received by letters are also captured in the
same spreadsheet. All calls / cases / complaints are collated into one document and categorized as per
section 6 above.
All queries and service requests are generally addressed the same day by providing the necessary
information or clarification to the customer or the caller. All complaints are tagged and shared with respective
departments for early resolution within the stipulated time.
Once a resolution or response is provided by the respective department, the same is communicated to the
customer by calling them and the case is closed. All these details are recorded in the spreadsheet template
where the complaints are captured.
All the data is analyzed every quarter and the following reports are prepared and presented to the Board
Social Performance Management Committee.
Total number of cases, calls, complaints received
Types of calls (queries, service requests or complaints) and trends over the last few quarters
Categories of complaints: product-wise – loans, insurance or third party; severe vs non-severe; sub
category or issues-wise
Number and percentage of complaints resolved
Top 3 branches which have received highest number of complaints
Once every week, the Ops team calls a sample of customers from the complaints records and asks if their
complaint was resolved and if or not, they are happy with the resolution provided. This is noted in the
complaints record in the spreadsheet.
Every quarter, MFIN sends an email request for the CGRM report to be filled and sent to them. This includes
a comprehensive list of all calls that were received categorized according to request type and the status of
resolution.
9. Communication to staff
All the new staff are trained on customer grievance redressal mechanism as a part of their induction training
program. All the existing staff receive information about the mechanism as part of their refresher training,
branch or unit level review meetings, circulars and direct communication from the Ops department which is
responsible for the mechanism. In addition to the information about the mechanism, the staff are also
sensitized about the importance of the grievance redressal mechanism, soft skills required to listen to
customers, receive and resolve the complaints and handling difficult customers.
10. Communication to customers
The CGRM is communicated to all the customers during various processes and by including the details in
various loan documentation and communication material. The right to complain and the channels available
are communicated as part of the following processes:
Origination
Training meeting and residence verification
Disbursements
The helpline number is printed in acknowledgement receipt given during origination process, in the loan
sanction letter and in the loan card.