A confidential channel, open at any hour
MMost programs have a feedback, complaints and response mechanism (FCRM). However, practical constraints such as wait times, line availability, or accessibility issues can sometimes limit its use. The SOLIS Bot’s complaint channel complements these systems by providing an additional, simple, and accessible way for affected persons to report issues more easily.
How it works
On WhatsApp, a complaint can be sent at any hour, with no queue, including by voice message for people who cannot read. Trust is built from the very first screen, and the flow states it plainly:
Hello. You have reached the SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL feedback, complaints and response mechanism. Your messages are confidential and handled by our (person's position). [1] I have an urgent request [2] I want to file a complaint [3] I have a question about the programmes [4] I want to share positive feedback
Every report receives an acknowledgement, a stated handling time, and a reference. It is then followed end to end: received, handled, closed. Nothing is lost, everything is time-stamped, and only the protection team has access.
Why people use it
A complaints channel only works if beneficiaries believe their message will be read, acted on, and cause them no harm. Three things build that trust: confidentiality stated up front, a response time announced rather than endured, and the discretion of a message sent from one's own phone, with no counter to face and no queue to join.
In practice
A channel that rivals the hotline. In Lebanon, CARE's SOLIS Bot FCRM handled 185 complaints in a single month, two-thirds of the traditional hotline's volume, largely from people who would never have called. During the 2024 escalation it was, in CARE's words, "particularly popular among younger users and those with limited airtime credit", processing over 7,000 entries.
A channel that settles in for the long run. At Nabad for Development, once trust was established, the bot handles an average of 200 feedback entries a month, alongside physical complaint boxes and the hotline.
What it changes
The mechanism plugs into your existing accountability procedures, FCRM and PSEA, and complements your current channels without replacing them. You document your accountability loop with real data, time-stamped and traceable, rather than with estimates. And above all, you hear voices that would otherwise have stayed silent.
For a channel people confide in
- Always show an explicit confidentiality message at the start of the flow. This message can encourage people to speak up
- State a handling time and keep to it. A broken promise destroys trust more surely than no answer at all.
- Keep the channel human. The bot structures and traces, but every complaint is handled by a person. Technology organises the response, it does not replace it.