We recently had the opportunity to sponsor the Westminster Insight’s Public Sector Complaint Handling Conference. The event brought together professionals from various sectors to discuss the intricacies of complaint handling and share best practices. Here are some key takeaways and reflections from the event.
Cultural Change
Starting off the conference was a talk by Verity Richards (CIHM), Housing Ombudsman Service: "The key is to make sure your complaints team is well resourced and listened to". It all starts from within the organisation. But how do you foster a positive complaint handling culture? We talk more about that here.
Overall, there was an evident need to inspect the organisation-wide complaint culture and sometimes change the existing processes.
Helen Main, Customer & Complaints Manager at The Insolvency Service, raised a critical need to consider the vulnerability of many complainants. Complaint handling processes should be designed to accommodate the needs and circumstances of vulnerable individuals, ensuring responses are timely and empathetic.
We also discussed innovative practices like the Financial Ombudsman’s approach of calling complainants to explain non-upheld complaints. This practice fosters respect, empathy, and learning, showcasing the value of direct communication.
Additionally, initiatives like aggregating data for community insights, as seen in Wales, offer promising avenues for improving complaints management.
A Call for Listening
A recurring theme was the notion that many individuals who end up in the complaints process did not set out to lodge a formal complaint. Instead, they simply wanted to be heard. Helen Wyatt from Devon County Council pointed out that many people stumble into the complaints process because it is the first channel they find.
Once a complaint is lodged, the formal process often shifts the focus from listening to meeting deadlines and compliance requirements. This regulatory pressure can hinder the ability to learn from the complainant’s feedback. It was noted that clear definitions between service requests and complaints in the Complaints Code could help alleviate this issue.
Knowledge Management and Learning
Rosemary Agnew from the Scottish Ombudsman emphasised the importance of knowledge management in complaints handling. Strengthening our capacity to learn from complaints and integrating these insights into practice is crucial for continuous improvement.
In the session with Brian Weston, Helen Wyatt and Susan James we heard: "People change, times change. Just because something was working before, doesn't mean it does now. You need to learn from customers and send the insights to different organisational departments". Listen to your customers, listen to your team - we can't agree more!
Even though various metrics for processing complaints are fairly well-documented within public sector, the actual costs remain largely unknown and there was a notable gap in understanding the costs associated with handling complaints.
Reflections
Westminster Insight’s Public Sector Complaint Handling event underscored the importance of fostering a positive complaint handling culture within organisations. By emphasising the need for continuous learning, the event highlighted ways to more effective complaint management practices. As we reflect on the insights shared, it is clear that listening to and valuing complainant feedback can lead to significant improvements across the public sector.
In our own session, Nic Streatfeild explored our journey with Tony Stead (Cambridge City Council). Cambridge has helped us build CaseTracker and the last 8 years has truly been a learning journey, however we can now say we have built a robust, all-in-one complaint handling platform that not only helps you with compliance but also learning from the insights you get and influencing organisational change: https://www.govmetric.com/casetracker
If you would like to discover some of our Customer Stories, highlighting real-world customer experience and complaint handling transformations within the public sector, click below.
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