Complaints can be costly and time consuming for businesses. Social media complaints can devastate staff and impact on brand. Resolving complaints quickly and efficiently can save costs, protect reputation, decrease staff turnover and satisfy customers. Complaint handling is important for the following reasons:
- The Australian Standard for Complaint Handling, AS ISO 10,002-2006, requires that that all staff who have contact with customers and complainants should be trained in complaint handling (see 5.3.4 of the Standard);
- Compliance with the Australian Standard may be mandatory;
- Turnover or attrition will often decrease when complaint handling staff receive relevant training;
- Companies can save costs and increase profits by managing complaints effectively;
- 88% of customers who feel a complaint was handled well will remain loyal to the company (from TMI/SOCAP Complaint Culture Survey 2005);
- Companies that manage complaints well minimise risk and reduce the cost of external dispute resolution schemes;
- Companies that handle complaints well and learn from the experience obtain important customer feedback; and
- Most companies are unaware of the cost of complaints to their company. Most managers do not view complaints as important.
We can custom design a training program to meet the unique needs of your organisation. We have custom designed in-house workshops for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Financial Industry Complaints Scheme (FICS) members, the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman (PHIO) conciliators, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Energy and Water Ombudsman (EWON) conciliators, National Australia Bank, and Optus to name only a few. Nina Harding wrote the first Complaint Handling workshop for postgrad students in Australia. This program was conducted at La Trobe University and Queensland University. We also have online training modules for Complaint Handlers. Please click here to watch a short introductory video.
FrontlineComplaints introductory video
We can provide the following services:
- In-house 1 or 2 day workshops on Complaint Handling;
- Key-note or guest speaker at your next conference;
- A high level discussion with the executive team on the importance of Complaint Management and the business case for doing it well; and
- On-line interactive training modules for call-centre staff.