Leading Complaint Handling Teams

Course Outline and Objectives

With numbers of complaints on the up and increasing levels of scrunity from regulators, the media and the weight of public opinion, there's a growing expectation on firms and organisations about how customers are treated.

So, what does this mean for the way we approach and think about customer complaints? And the decisions and outcomes that we might be expected to reach?

Over a series of half-day sessions we focus our attention on three strategic areas, which relate specifically to complaint handling functions and the way we approach our handling of customer complaints.

Session 1 - Our Culture

We take an in-depth look into the role our culture plays in meeting the increasing demands around us. From how we talk about complaints and share insights to our 'place' in the firm and the relationships we have with our internal and external stakeholders.

Session 2 - Our Processes

We look at the processes that sit in, and around, our handling of customer complaints. The challenge with processes is that they become very familiar and normal to us and, unless something big happens to shine a spotlight on an issue, it's not always easy to spot a part of a process that's gone rogue or is no longer working as it should be.

One of the core principles that sits behind complaint handling is that we know who our customers are then build and provide our processes and services around them and what they need. We use this lens in this session to unpick the process our customers are made to follow to raise their complaint and look at their overall customer experience from start to finish.

We also explore whether processes and approaches work for us too; from the key performance indicators and signs of success to how, who and where we get our feedback and insight from.

Session 3 - Our People

We will look at the make-up of our teams and regulators' expectations around customer service and the skills colleagues need. We will also explore the impact of 'empathy and normalisation fatigue', and what we can do to ensure our colleagues stay engaged, curious, interested and feel rewarded and valued.

Who will benefit?

This series is for you if you work in the public or private sector and you:

• Have strategic oversight for call centre and customer service functions
• Have strategic oversight for complaint handling functions and teams
• Lead a complaint handling team
• Work in customer experience or business improvement

Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Culture
  • Insight, learnings and actions
  • The language we use
  • Governance and control
  • Relationships with regulators / ombudsmen
• Processes
  • How customers complain
  • Handling a customer complaint
  • What does good look like?
• People
  • Regulatory expectations around customer service and colleague skills
  • Team dynamics, resourcing and performance targets
  • Ensuring communications are effective and good
  • Identifying causes of empathy fatigue and preventing the normalisation of unfairness