Using Customer and Community Complaints to Improve Services www.tis.org.uk Understanding People – Unlocking Potential Using Customer and Community Complaints to Improve Services Lynda Johnstone TIS Development Director TIS Housing & Community Engagement Staff Residential 2017 Thursday 23 – Friday 24 March 2017 www.tis.org.uk

What this workshop will cover… Using Customer and Community Complaints to Improve Services Defining or the meaning of complaints Complaints – Friend or Foe Addressing Complaints

What is a complaint? How would you define a complaint?

“ The meaning of ‘complaint’ A statement that something is wrong or not satisfactory To say that something is wrong or that you are annoyed about something To express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault

Complaints: friend or foe? Valuable source of information about your services Help to identify underlying or recurring problems Help to identify potential improvements Can be used alongside other organisational information including: Satisfaction survey results Benchmarking of performance indicators with other organisations Build up accurate picture of how services are performing Assist you to put together development plans based on sound evidence

Addressing complaints: a meaningful process Collect: Gather and record complaints and information Analyse: The nature of complaint and what can be learned Action: What can be done to resolve complaint & improve services in future Report: Publicise and report on any improvements

Your journey: more detail In small groups… Identify a complaint within your organisation which you may be familiar with Consider the complaint in relation to the four steps in the process Detail the possible actions you would take as part of each step What recommendations for change would be suggested? Think about the challenges you may face in each step and how you would overcome them Feedback

“ Learning from complaints In a pair or small groups share your experiences of: “ How does your organisation learn from complaints

Remember… A complaining customer is doing you a favour. They have the choice of just not coming back, and by giving you the opportunity to hear and take steps to remedy their complaint, they are offering you the opportunity to turn them into a satisfied customer. Staff must tune in, listen and be engaged with the customer solving the problem as quickly as possible with the fewest number of involved employees is job one. Own it – which means not trying to explain why it happened or placing blame elsewhere. Let them know you are concerned and tell them you will quickly take action to remedy and prevent future occurrences.

Remember… Take action which is appropriate to the situation. Follow through and do what you say you will do. Remember that you aren’t just remedying the complaint for one customer. When one customer takes the time to complain, there are likely more with the same issue who just didn’t speak up. Your goal is to prevent the issue from happening again which improves the experience for every customer! “I have a complaint” should be your friend creating customer satisfaction and improved service.