Is there opportunity in threats?

Companies have always stared their age old enemy in the face, and that enemy is the fact that you can please some people some time, but you cannot please all of the people all the time. Complaints will happen.

Complaints from customers are not always a bad thing. They can be a great feedback tool, allowing companies to deliver what customers really want and not what they think people want.

Complaints handling should be viewed as an opportunity for continuous business improvement, and a value proposition for intermediaries to offer their clients.

Head and shoulders above

By investing in the complaints handling process – and taking into account aspects such as social media, intermediaries and how the complaints info can be effectively fed back into the system – businesses can set themselves apart from the competition.

There is currently a strong emphasis in the long-term insurance industry on improving complaints handling. An effective, robust complaints handling process is a requirement in terms of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF).

TCF says you must make it easy, assessable and visible for clients to lodge complaints. The number of Ombudsman complaints in the life insurance industry declined by 8% in 2014, the first time it had declined in many years. This is due, at least in part, to the TCF frameworks placing greater emphasis on putting customers at the centre of the business.

Positive for intermediaries

An effective complaints process can have a positive impact on the role of intermediaries. An intermediary should be able to say to clients: if you pick up a problem, you can rest assured that it will go through a proper complaints handling process, and you will receive a fair outcome.

On the flip side, the complaints handling process can protect the client because they know any unsound advice from the adviser will be exposed.

Unearthing defects

From a business improvement perspective, the more complaints you get in, the more possibilities you have to look at defects in different environments.

Making effective use of the information collected from complaints allows a company to identify and correct potential areas of concern.

But for this to work effectively, companies have to look at the root cause of each complaint and not treat the matter only on the surface. Root cause analysis is an invaluable tool for continuous business improvement.

The social agitator

The rise of social media has also had a great impact on complaints handling over the last few years. It may initially be seen as a threat by businesses, but it is in fact one of the most valuable tools for building customer loyalty and continuous business improvement. Social media will in future form a large part of any complaints procedure.

Companies that are winning the battle in terms of responding to complaints via social media are those that have solid processes and systems in place, so various departments can work together very effectively and against tight timelines.

Role player contentment

This is where it is vital to get all your role players on the same page. While one part of the business may have set itself up to handle social media complaints, information must be gathered from other areas and doing this timeously can be a challenge.

Everyone in the business needs to understand that the sooner you can identify a social media complaint and get it channelled into the right processes and places, the better it is to get to a solution. This minimises potential damage to your brand.

Intermediaries and businesses need to move away from viewing complaints purely in a negative light. Complaints can be harnessed to the benefit of all: intermediaries, businesses and clients. In fact, the complaints process can go as far as to draw everyone involved to a higher level of performance and commitment to provide value to the client.