The latest news on complaints handling continues to make poor reading. But there is hope. This article considers the issues involved and the costs of complaints. It suggests some ideas for organisations to improve their complaints handling.
The news just announced is that complaints to the UK Banking Ombudsman Service have risen alarmingly. A recent new BBC announcement said that they are up 15% on 2010. Over half of these complaints were upheld by the Financial Ombudsman. One commentator in the article urges Banks to invest more resources into better complaints handling.
One issue in today’s economy is that customers are tightening their belts and so are less tolerant when things go wrong. This happens at a moment when organisations are stretched and often there is pressure on staff to deal with matters more quickly.
How is the cost of complaints handling rising?In this environment, complaints, when handled poorly, result in a significant increase in cost as customers seek to escalate their approach through more frequent contact, often seeking a higher authority to assist. Hence the Ombudsman is in demand in Banking. The costs of these complaints are rather like an iceberg. On the surface the numbers of complaints are bad enough but the huge size of the problem lies underneath. Each complaint is a protracted wrangle involving telephone calls, letters and sometimes even threats of litigation. Therefore each complaint is costing money to deal with.
It need not be like this, an effective complaints policy and attention to the basics can pay dividends. For more information take a look at our tips for handling complaints.
Alison Miles-JenkinsManaging DirectorTraining To Achieve (UK) Ltd
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