Complaint Prevention

Often complaints are escalated to the ombudsman because a firm does not have a clear process for the customer to complain and manage.

Here are some of the ways complaint barriers can be reduced:

• Regular monitoring of customer satisfaction, such as through quick satisfaction surveys allow the customer to give feedback
• Keeping channels of communication as open as possible and working to ensure that it is easy for customers to get in touch through the channel of their preference
• Closely monitoring social media for any evidence of customer dissatisfaction and actively engaging with them and providing solutions.
• Foster strong integration and close ties between the contact center and complaints department
• Consistently tracking and reviewing insights from your customer sentiment data

Ways to reduce the number of cases that get to the ombudsman stage in the first place:

• Discover the source of the issue through root cause analysis
• Evaluate the claims that reached the ombudsman: were they dealt with correctly by customer service and what could have been done differently
• Quality assurance and outcomes testing. It is crucial for senior management to have accurate, timely and robust management information
• Making the tradeoff between compensation to the customer and escalation to Ombudsman
• Benchmarking current complaints processes to industry standards and examining areas for improvements