A well-designed complaints handling process is critical for both public and private sectors, as it creates vital insights which can be used to pinpoint and resolve issues, in turn, enabling positive change.
Complaints create direct interaction between the organisation and the customer. By quickly engaging with the customer and discussing their issue, a stronger understanding is obtained, and typically the issue can be resolved more promptly with a more effective resolution.
A critical success factor of the process is a culture that embraces complaints, viewing them as a crucial source of feedback rather than an inconvenience or problem. The approach to handling complaints can reveal much about an organisation’s culture.
The team at Pro-Sourcing Solutions we have been supporting organisations enhance their complaint handling for over a decade and have seen most things that can go wrong and more importantly learnt effective methods of overcoming them.
Creating An Effective Complaints Process
For an internal complaints process to be effective it should provide enough structure and procedural guidance that there is consistency in decisions but remain flexible and tailored so each complaint can be determined on its own merits. It also needs to comply with the law if there is a statutory process to follow.
Quickly and effectively addressing complaints helps prevent escalation by ensuring issues are resolved before further complaints arise due to delayed responses and actions. This principle applies to all complaint channels, whether formal written complaints or verbal ones, ensuring consistent handling.
A successful complaints process will adhere to the following principles:
- It should be easy for a customer to make a complaint
- Customers should be advised how their complaint will be handled in clear and simple English without the use of industry jargon
- Explain clearly the logical decisions made which led to the error
- The organisation should be open and transparent if something went wrong and use the word sorry
- Put it right and if this is not immediate, advise when the issue will be rectified and monitor to ensure it is completed
- Collate root cause data so a holistic picture can be created
- Appropriate levels of controls and governance is in place to ensure learnings are being implemented and good outcomes are consistently being made
How To Manage Complaints
Our experience across various industries shows that complaints handling is most effective when teams are empowered by executive leadership and integrated into the core of the organisation, rather than being an administration function as little value is then gleaned.
It’s important for organisations to value the rare occasion when a customer decides to voice a complaint. Acknowledging and resolving the issue, along with clarifying what went wrong, is beneficial for both parties involved.
The underlying operating model also plays a significant factor in how effective complaints are managed, resolved and reported. Although there are multiple ways to structure complaint handling, our research and experience demonstrates that a centralised model often ensures greater consistency, as well as more effective control and oversight of the function.
So, what should be done when a complaint is received? There are several steps which should be followed to ensure it is handled effectively, regardless of your regulatory framework:
Identifying and Acknowledging a Complaint
Complaints identification has proved to be a significant challenge for many organisations with frequent cases of both under and over reporting taking place. Trying to assess whether a customer’s dissatisfaction should be treated as a complaint is a relatively subjective test, so clear and relatable examples are key.
Some staff may not regularly deal with expressions of dissatisfaction or complaint which makes spotting them difficult – and some firms do not capture expressions of dissatisfaction, so staff naturally log any dissatisfaction as a complaint.
To ensure that nothing is lost in translation, it is always advisable to attempt to speak with a customer to clarify their issue, advise that you will now be handling the matter and if it is not clear, it is always worth asking a customer what would resolve their issue satisfactorily. Once complete, a written communication in plain English should be issued outlining what the customer should expect next.
If your organisation receives complaints of varying complexity, it is prudent to incorporate a Triage step. This allows for efficient distribution of complaints to appropriate team members, ensuring simpler issues don’t get delayed by more complex ones. We often here statements about ‘treating customers fairly’, what this statement does not mean is treating everyone ‘equally’, in turn having an adverse impact on all.
Information Gathering
Gathering the information required to investigate a complaint is critical. This ‘evidence’ will help you understand how an issue has occurred and, more importantly, what needs to be done to rectify it.
When an issue has developed over time, it is prudent to organise the information chronologically. This helps in understanding the sequence of events, pinpointing what went wrong, and when.
Investigating The Complaint
Now that you have all the required information, you can assess the customer complaint and understand where and how the issue occurred. It’s crucial to remain impartial during the investigation and recognise any aspects of failure or the need for education for both parties. While your complaints may be managed centrally, it’s vital to consult business subject matter experts (SMEs) to uncover the cause of an issue. Afterwards, assess whether is realistic for a customer’s to have known or even understand what has been relayed.
Making a Decision
For consistency, record-keeping, and managing future escalations, it is beneficial to use a standardised template for documenting review notes and decisions. To clearly structure your decision, it is advisable to employ headings for a logical flow, thereby making it easier for customers to navigate the document. The correspondence should be written in plain English and detail the specific complaint, investigation findings, investigation outcome, subsequent actions, next steps, and include a thank you for bringing the issue to your attention.
Additional inclusions should encompass regulatory referral rights, if applicable, and a sincere apology incorporating the word ‘sorry.’ Research has shown that including ‘sorry’ in communications helps rebuild trust and defuses any lingering animosity, thereby aiding in customer retention. Furthermore, if customers have a positive complaint resolution experience, they are more likely to become advocates for your organisation.
We often concentrate on communicating with customers when we have a positive outcome, but in roughly 50% of cases, we may need to decline or reject a customer’s complaint. This situation can naturally lead to discomfort as we prepare to deliver unfavourable news. However, it’s important to employ the same structured approach in delivering such outcomes. Misunderstandings by customers are common, making it crucial that your response not only informs but also educates, guiding them towards information that helps them understand the issue in greater detail.
Learning From Complaints
Complaints are a valuable source of feedback for assessing your organisations performance and can reveal inefficiencies and process failures. Establishing a robust framework for monitoring and learning from complaints is crucial. Key components of the framework include:
Governance & Compliance Frameworks
So, you have created an effective process for investigating and resolving complaints; however, this is not the time to become complacent. By implementing robust and informative governance and compliance measures, you should be able to test, learn from, and improve your processes with the benefit of hindsight – a perspective that you, as a frontline complaint handler, may not initially possess.
Your framework should evaluate the suitability of the outcomes your organisation has delivered to customers, determine whether the processes have been followed and adhered to, and assess the effectiveness of the communication.
The most effective frameworks will incorporate a combination of testing and reflection, engaging both those who are intimately familiar with the intricate processes and those who are removed from the day-to-day operations, providing an impartial perspective on how complaints have been handled.
The icing on the cake is having your executive team set aside time each quarter to listen to a sample of non-sanitised calls from customers raising complaints, and then to follow the steps taken to resolve them. This approach provides far greater insight than merely reviewing a page of KPIs and helps to generate creative thinking and ideas for the wider business.
MI, Planning & Reporting
Whilst it is important to have qualitative discussions and testing to learn and create specific learning, Quantitative data is essential for the safe and successful running of your operation and if used correctly can create equally as valuable insights.
At a minimum, daily Management Information (MI) should detail the volume of open complaints and those closed over various time frames (e.g., yesterday, this week, last week), and include the current stage of each complaint (Acknowledgement, Information Gathering, Investigation). These data points help gauge operational control and identify emerging hotspots. Utilising a dedicated, specialised complaint handling platform, such as Aptean Respond or iCasework, not only integrates all standard MI requirements, including regulatory reporting, but also offers additional features to boost efficiency and effectiveness
If your typical complaint volume is relatively large, operational planning and forecasting become imperative. Understanding your capacity and the age profile of your complaints allows you to set realistic expectations for both internal stakeholders and customers. Should forecasts indicate a potential to exceed tolerance levels, proactive communication is crucial. Inform internal stakeholders about possible deviations and advise customers that, although your aim is to resolve complaints within a specific timeframe, you are currently operating beyond that period. While this approach is acceptable and sensible for managing expectations, it should be considered a temporary measure. This strategy should only be employed for a short duration while your recovery plan, such as implementing overtime or seconding additional resources, is put into action.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) & Customer Journey Mapping
The RCA approach may vary with the volume of complaints but is fundamentally data-driven. If monthly complaints exceed what can be manually reviewed in a few hours, capturing key data points at resolution is essential. The following items represent a basic list that, regardless of industry, can help identify trends, concerns, and evidence of improvements:
- Date issue occurred (date)
- Customer Type (picklist)
- Product or Service Type (picklist)
- Name of business department (picklist)
- Type of issue (multiple picklist)
- Outcome of complaint (picklist)
- Compensation amount (numeric value)
- Date resolved (date)
Once an established flow of information is in place, you can engage in regular, in-depth analysis using techniques such as ‘5 Whys’ or ‘Fishbone Analysis’ to identify the root causes of issues and reduce or even prevent them.
Value is truly created by overlaying your (RCA) findings onto a well-documented customer journey map. This approach enables a focused examination of the issues, pinpointing more precisely where things are going wrong and, more importantly, identifying which step in the process is generating the unwanted friction.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a well-structured complaints handling process is indispensable for sparking positive change within any organisation. By embracing complaints as valuable feedback, organisations can gain deeper insights, leading to more effective resolutions and improved customer relations.
With our experience Pro-Sourcing Solutions we cannot emphasise the importance of a clear, flexible process, underpinned by principles of ease, transparency, and fairness. Effective complaints management, supported by robust governance, MI, and Root Cause Analysis, not only addresses current issues but also anticipates and mitigates future challenges. Ultimately, viewing complaints through the lens of opportunity rather than inconvenience can transform customer interactions and drive organisational growth and create advocates for your organisation.
Having worked in most UK regulated industries, it doesn’t matter whether your Regulator or Ombudsman is the Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Ombudsman Service, Housing Ombudsman, Ofgem, Ofwat, CCW; the team at Pro-Sourcing Solutions can transform your complaints function from a headache into an efficient yet valuable function which provides invaluable business insights.
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