**Source URL:** https://quality.veevavault.help/en/lr/1227594/

# Working with Complaint Intake Follow-Up (QMS)

Veeva QMS provides automation and tools to streamline the high-volume complaint follow-up process, reducing manual effort and ensuring proper evaluation of downstream impact to minimize compliance risk. Initial reports of complaints often require follow-up attempts to gather more information to determine if the complaint is valid. After creating a _Complaint Intake_ in Vault for an initial report, you can track follow-up attempts and optionally send follow-up request emails from related _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ records. When a reporter, complainant, or other external contact replies to a follow-up email, Vault stores the reply, lets you email back and forth to request additional information, and initiates an evaluation process for any new information received. Upon promotion of a _Complaint Intake_ to a _Complaint_, information about follow-up attempts displays on all _Complaints_ created from the _Complaint Intake_, allowing you to continue the follow-up process until you have gathered all relevant information.

Depending on your Admin's configuration, object, field, and section labels may appear differently than the labels mentioned in this article.

## Creating Complaint Contacts

To send follow-up requests from a _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record, the parent _Complaint Intake_ must have related _Complaint Contact_ records to store information about the recipients of follow-up emails. Vault may create _Complaint Contacts_ automatically when creating a _Complaint Intake_ from an email or via an integration, or you can manually create them from the corresponding section on _Complaint Intake_ and _Complaint_ records. When sending a follow-up request email from a _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_, or when replying to a response, you can modify the _Complaint Contacts_ that receive the email.

## Creating Complaint Intake Follow-Ups

You can create _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ records from the corresponding section on _Complaint Intake_ and _Complaint_ records. All _Complaint Intake Follow-Ups_ are related to the source _Complaint Intake_, including those created from a _Complaint_. If creating _Complaint Intake Follow-Ups_ from a _Complaint_, the _Complaint_ must have the _Complaint Intake_ reference field populated. The fields available may vary, but you must select a _Request Type_ and _Contact Method_. If configured by your Admin, you may also be able to select a _Communication Language_ which determines the language of the email when sending a follow-up request from the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_. 

## Sending Follow-Up Requests & Replies {#send-request}

To send an initial follow-up request, navigate to a _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record and select the **Send External Notification** action from the **All Actions** menu. After selecting the action, you may be able to modify the following values in the resulting dialog:

* **To**: Defaults to the _Primary Contact_ on the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_. If no primary contact is selected, Vault populates the _Initial Reporter_ type _Complaint Contact_ associated with the follow-up's _Complaint Intake_. This is the primary recipient of the notification. If you update this field when sending a notification, Vault updates the _Primary Contact_ on the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record.
* **CC: Complaint Contacts**: Populates based on your Admin's configuration and the _Complaint Contacts_ specified in the _CC Contacts_ field of the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_. These are the CC recipients on an external notification. If you update this field when sending a notification, Vault updates the _CC Contacts_ field on the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record.
* **Internal Recipients**: You can select any active _Person_ record you have permission to view. You can choose to include these recipients in the BCC field instead of the CC field.
* **Users associated to the following Complaint Intake roles**: Defaults to users in the _Complaint Intake_ roles specified by your Admin. You can select additional roles and their associated users who will receive the notification, and choose to include role recipients in the BCC field instead of the CC field.
* **Documents to Send**: You can select documents that reference the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up's_ related _Complaint Intake_.

All recipients must have the _Consent to Contact?_ field set to _Yes_ on their corresponding _Complaint Contact_ record.

When the action completes, Vault creates an outbound _Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email_ record for each email you send.

### Replying to a Follow-Up Response {#reply}

You can reply to any responses to a follow-up request by navigating to the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email_ section on a _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_, selecting an inbound email, and selecting the **Send Email Reply** action from the email record's **All Actions** menu. After selecting the action, you can modify the recipients, add your response text, and add documents in the resulting dialog. Vault derives the default recipients from the most recent outbound _Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email_ matching on the same primary contact, and updates the role recipients to match the current role assignments on the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record.

### About Follow-Up Response Email Processing {#email-processing}

Vault creates _Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email_ records for each sent and received email in a thread and associates them with the originating _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_. If you receive multiple responses for a single follow-up request, Vault captures each response in a separate _Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email_ record.

For inbound emails, Vault populates the following data on _Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email_ records and their corresponding _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_:

| Field on Created Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email Record | Updated Field on Complaint Intake Follow-Up Record | Populated Value |
| ---------- | ------------ | ------------ |
| _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ | N/A | Originating _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ |
| _Email_ | N/A | Name of email received |
| _Direction_ | N/A | _Inbound_ |
| _Subject_ | N/A | Plain text of the email subject |
| _Email Body Text_ | _Latest Email Body Text_ and, if configured, _Latest Response Details_ | Plain text of the email body |
| _Email Body_ | _Latest Email Body_ | Displays email in HTML format. You can select **View Email** to display a dialog with the HTML-formatted email. |
| _Received Date_ | _Latest Response Date_ | The date on which Vault received the email |
| _Original Sender Email_ | N/A | The email address of the original sender |

Upon receiving a new response to a follow-up request, Vault also sets the following field values on the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record to end the [Auto-Retry][1] process for the follow-up request:

* _Retry Rule_: _None_
* _Retry Due On_: Blank

#### Attachments

Vault adds attachments from received emails to the _Attachments_ section of the associated _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record, and also displays them in the _Follow-Up Attachments_ section on the related _Complaint Intake_ and any _Complaints_.

### About Auto-Retry {#auto-retry}

Your Admin can configure Vault to automatically send additional follow-up requests after you send an initial request. Each time Vault makes a new follow-up attempt, Vault creates a _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record with the same details as the previous attempt. If Vault cannot send a follow-up email for any reason, Vault sets the next _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record to an _Error_ state and captures details about the error in the _Error Message_ field.

For Vault to automatically process follow-up requests, you must populate the following values on a _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_:

* **Retry?**: Must be _Auto_.
* **Retry Due On**: Select a date by which the retry must be processed.
* **Retry Frequency**: The cadence of retry attempts in days.
* **Remaining Retries**: The number of subsequent attempts to be processed by Auto-Retry.

The following limitations apply to Auto-Retry:

* Document attachments are not supported; you must send documents as links in emails.
* Auto-Retry only supports CC for Internal Recipients and Role Recipients. If you sent the initial email using BCC, these recipients will be included in the email as CC recipients.

### About Email Tracking

Vault tracks the delivery status of sent emails and captures information about warnings and errors in the _Sent Notifications_ section of _Complaint Intake Follow-Ups_.

### About Email Processing Failure

If Vault cannot find the originating _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record upon receiving a reply to a follow-up request, Vault instead creates a new _Complaint Intake_ record with details about the email and sets its state to _Error_. If _Complaint Intake_ creation fails, Vault sets the _Email_ record's state to _Failure_. Vault sets the _Email_ record to a _Bounced_ state if the inbound email address is invalid. We recommend creating a flash report to track _Email_ records that are in _Failure_ or _Bounced_ states.

## Evaluating Follow-Up Responses {#follow-up-evaluations}

You can perform an evaluation for follow-up information received from complaint contacts such as reporters and complainants. Vault creates _Followup Evaluation_ records when a _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ record meets the following conditions:

* The _Latest Response Details_ field is populated upon record creation, or updated or populated on an existing record.
* The _Followup Evaluation Type_ field is set to _Followup Evaluation Needed_ upon record creation, or upon updating an existing record.
* The parent _Complaint Intake_ has one or more related _Complaints_.

Vault does not create _Followup Evaluations_ for cancelled or inactive _Complaints_, or for _Complaint Intake Follow-Ups_ related to a _Complaint Intake_ that has not been promoted to a _Complaint_.

When the above conditions are met, Vault:

* Creates a _Followup Evaluation_ record for each _Complaint_ related to the _Complaint Intake Follow-Up's_ parent _Complaint Intake_, even if the _Complaint_ is closed.
* Sets the following field values on the created _Followup Evaluation_ records:
    * **Complaint**: The _Followup Evaluation's_ parent _Complaint_
    * **Complaint Intake**: The parent _Complaint's_ originating _Complaint Intake_
    * **Complaint Intake Follow-Up**: The _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ for which evaluation is needed
    * **Response Date**: The value of the _Latest Response Date_ field on the evaluation's originating _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_, if available
    * **Response Details**: The value of the _Latest Response Details_ field on the evaluation's originating _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_
* Begins a workflow that assigns tasks and sends notifications for relevant users to review the newly received information. This process may vary depending on your Admin's configuration and your organization's requirements.

**Note**: Automatic creation of _Followup Evaluations_ is not supported for Vaults that use the _Complaint_ and _Medtech Complaint_ object types of the _Quality Event_ object rather than the standalone _Complaint_ object.

## Related Permissions {#permissions}

To use Complaint Intake Follow-Up, you must have a security profile with a permission set that grants the following permissions:

* _Execute_ permission for the _Send External Notification_ and _Send Email Reply_ actions: Only required if sending emails from _Complaint Intake Follow-Ups_
* _Read_, _Edit_, or _Create_ permissions as required for the following objects:
  * _Complaint_, or the _Complaint_ and _Medtech Complaint_ object types on the _Quality Event_ object
  * _Complaint Contact_: Only required if sending emails from _Complaint Intake Follow-Ups_
  * _Complaint Intake_
  * _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_
  * Optional: _Followup Evaluation_
* _View_ permission for the following object controls on the _Complaint Intake_ and _Complaint_ or _Quality Event_ objects:
  * _Complaint Contacts_
  * _Complaint Intake Follow-Ups_
  * _Follow-Up Attachments_
* If sending emails from _Complaint Intake Follow-Up_ records, _Read_ permission for the following objects: 
  * _Complaint Intake Follow-Up Email_
  * _Complaint Intake Followup Sent Notif_
  * _Email_
  * _Person_: For the ability to include _Persons_ as CC recipients on an email

[1]: #auto-retry