A confidential channel, open at any hour
Most programmes have a complaints mechanism. On paper. In practice, the hotline rings out, the wait discourages, and the very people who most need to report a problem give up before they are heard. A mechanism that is not genuinely accessible is not a mechanism, it is a box ticked. The SOLIS bot's complaints channel exists to close that gap between intention and reality.
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 complaints and feedback mechanism. Your messages are confidential and handled by our protection focal point. [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 complaints mechanism 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, 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, CFM 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. "Your messages are confidential, only our protection focal point has access" is not a formality, it is what decides a person to speak.
- 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.