The Heart of the UK Complaints Community (EN-GB)

Coffee Club –The Heart of the UK Complaints Community

Introduction

Our 2021 Coffee Clubs certainly didn’t disappoint, bringing together professionals from right across the UK complaints community to discuss the real issues keeping them awake at night. Providing a safe, open forum for full and often frank discussions, the Coffee Club explored issues as diverse as managing changing customer behaviours and unlocking the potential power of AI and speech analytics.

Working together, the Collaboration Network, supported by Aptean, provided the platform for some much-needed conversations within the UK complaints community, uniting complaint experts from diverse industries and sectors, all striving for the common goal of sharing best practices around complaint management.

What follows is just a taster of the many and varied discussions that our Coffee Club attendees have had over the last few months. With the sessions for next year already taking shape, what are you waiting for? Come and join the conversation.

Table of Contents

› Achieving swifter customer resolutions

› Should you ever ignore a complaint?

› Managing challenging customer behaviours

› Unlocking the value of AI and speech analytics

› Reducing ‘own goal’ complaints

› The Collaboration Network

› Aptean Respond – complaints experience and expertise

› What does the UK complaints community have to say?

› Join the conversation

Research shows that if a resolution is achieved within a week, 75% of customers will remain as customers. If timescales stretch to between three and four weeks, there’s a 50/50 chance that the customer will go elsewhere.

1. Achieving swifter customer resolutions

While we all know that faster isn’t always better when it comes to securing quality resolutions for customers, complaint teams are still under pressure from customers, their own organisations and regulators to ensure swift resolutions. This particular session looked at how to acknowledge and respond to customer complaints as swiftly and efficiently as possible, exploring different processes for different channels and the potential for templated responses.

Main talking points:

› The key is efficacy. If a complaint is resolved too quickly, there can be an assumption that there was either a lack of care or diligence. Too slow and you risk falling foul of the regulators and losing customers at the same time. It’s crucial to strike the right balance between speed and quality of outcome.

› You need to have the right tools, information, and support in place to successfully manage complaints in terms of both speed and quality of resolution.

› There’s definitely a place for templated responses but they have to be managed properly and not seen as a panacea for all complaint-related inefficiencies.

› It’s important to offer an omnichannel experience where possible, communicating with customers via their preferred medium to ensure faster customer responses, which will expedite quality resolutions further still.

2. Should you ever ignore a complaint?

With businesses reporting that nuisance calls and unreasonable customers are seemingly on the rise, one of our Coffee Club members asked whether it was ever acceptable to ignore a customer complaint.

While the answer to this question is almost always, ‘no’, this question led to much debate as to when, if ever, you have to admit defeat and realise that a customer relationship is no longer working. And, what can you do to prevent this from happening?

Main talking points:

› Getting to deadlock is always a possibility. When this happens, you really have no choice but to go to the ombudsman. Getting a mediator involved can help to get to the crux of the issue, setting customer emotion aside.

› An unacceptable behaviour policy is key. Having this in-place provides one of the tools needed to better manage unacceptable customer behaviours, setting a benchmark for what you as a business will or won’t accept in terms of customer behaviour.

› For any ‘repeat offenders’, those customers who have made unfounded and potentially malicious complaints in the past, the technology is available to highlight calls from these numbers, enabling the call to be directed accordingly.

› It’s very easy to get caught up in doing the right thing for the customer, but organisations have a responsibility to protect colleagues too. That’s why it’s crucial to have the right mechanisms in place to deal with challenging customers.

› Managing expectations from the outset can help to prevent the deterioration of the relationship, helping to refocus conversations to look at outcomes.

3. Managing challenging customer behaviours

More and more of the Coffee Club attendees are noticing a marked change in customer behaviours, particularly over the last 12 months. While it’s well reported that COVID-19 is no longer regarded as a good excuse for lapses in customer service, you can’t deny that the impact of the global pandemic is still being felt across the world and people are more likely to complain about issues which, in pre-COVID times, might not have warranted a complaint at all.

This session discussed the rise in complaints and the increased levels of aggression that are being reported, asking how best to manage these changing behaviours while looking out for the wellbeing of complaint teams.

Main talking points:

› Social media and web-savvy consumers mean that everyone’s an expert these days, combined with the ever-present threat of customers taking to social media to air their grievances.

› It no longer takes as much commitment to make a complaint with businesses actively providing an omnichannel complaint experience in the interest of boosting customer experience ratings. And, the rise of next day delivery is leading to unrealistic customer expectations

› It’s crucial to close the resolution gap, bridging the difference between what the customer expects and what your business can deliver.

› Clearly defined complaint processes are a must, as well as the ability of complaint handlers to explain these processes and procedures, managing expectations from the outset.

› Training on ‘owning’ difficult conversations needs to go hand-in-hand with robust systems which furnish complaint handlers with the comprehensive information they need to make informed decisions and take the right course of action tailored to suit the specific needs of the customer.

› Complaint handlers need to know they’re in a safe space where they can push back against unreasonable customer demands with the full support of the business behind them.

UK Complaint levels are at their highest levels since 2009 but satisfaction with complaint handling has risen to its highest ever level too.

4. Unlocking the value of AI and speech analytics

With businesses looking to boost efficiencies across the complaint handling function, more and more organisations are turning to technology for help.

This session looked at how speech analytics and AI can help businesses better understand their customers and achieve better outcomes in complaints and customer service.

Main talking points:

› Some organisations are making great use of AI and speech analytics, realising efficiency savings by bringing down call-handling times, leading to faster resolutions and, ultimately, a more informed understanding of the end-to-end customer journey.

› The technology is available to mine calls for certain phrases, understanding pitch and tone, and so helping to direct customers accordingly, particularly at the initial triage stage.

› When it comes to identifying vulnerability and risks, AI and speech analytics can play a key role, if applied correctly. Other technology is available to help with vulnerability detection too, with intelligent complaint management systems facilitating not only the detection of vulnerability, but ensuring the fair treatment of those customers identified as vulnerable.

› Document scanning systems can help too, providing an overview of received documents to categorise complaints according to subject or risk, for example.

› AI and speech analytics shouldn’t be regarded as replacements for people, but instead seen as complimentary tools which afford complaint handlers more time to proactively deal with complaints, achieving faster, more quality outcomes in the process.

Valued at $1.5 billion in 2020, the global speech analytics market is set to be worth a staggering $3.8 billion by 2025.

5. Reducing ‘own goal’ complaints

The last session in this round of Coffee Club forums examined the issue of ‘own goal’ complaints. These are those complaints which might have been exacerbated through handling errors, complaints which could and should have been resolved more easily and perhaps in a shorter timescale than they actually were. In some cases, what start out as relatively simple complaints actually evolve into bigger, more complex issues, issues that can be incredibly difficult to resolve.

This is obviously a multi-faceted issue, one which touches on many areas of the end-to-end customer complaint journey, from challenging call handling targets through to staff attrition. This discussion raised some extremely important issues that lie at the very heart of successful complaint resolution.

Main talking points:

› Building confidence in frontline teams is crucial. It’s imperative to recruit the right people, perhaps focussing less on industry experience and more on emotional intelligence and empathy skills, with ongoing training needed to build complaint handler confidence in their own ability.

› Call targets can stand in the way of successful resolutions. More organisations are moving to customer outcome targets instead, with great results.

› Create a safe space where complaint teams know they can ask for help if needed. Help should be readily available, with the advice and guidance on-hand to enable complaint handlers to manage situations without having to hand it over to someone else.

› Total case ownership is proving a successful approach with the initial point of contact taking endto-end ownership of the complaint (although this doesn’t mean that they do all the work associated with resolving that complaint).

› We need to stop over-promising and under-delivering. Managing and delivering on customer expectations from the outset is paramount.

› Proactivity is key. Don’t wait for things to fail before taking action.

› Surveying customers too early in the complaint resolution process can do more harm than good. Give complaint handlers the flexibility to step out of formal, templated processes to deliver an appropriate, tailored response to each and every complaint.

› Complaint handlers are tired, evident in rising attrition rates across the industry. Some organisations are turning this around by focussing not on customers but on staff, with improvements to staff welfare leading to an inevitable boost to customer service and outcomes.

6. The Collaboration Network

The home of cross sector collaboration, The Collaboration Network is an inclusive and dynamic community of professionals, working together to improve business practices and raise the level of support for their customers and employees. Whether it’s complaint handling, regulatory compliance, service recovery, behavioural risk, situational vulnerability or operational strategy, we help you stay one step ahead.

We support and promote collaboration between regulated and non-regulated companies, not-for-profits, public sectors bodies, regulators, ombudsman, Government departments and consumer rights advocates. Through our exclusive services and our panel of expert consultants, members benefit from up-to-date guidance and insight into best practice across a range of crucial topics and on-the-pulse issues.

The Collaboration Network is a subscription based professional membership organisation. Our members enjoy access to exclusive content and engagement platforms, including our conference programme, bi-annual journals, monthly webinar series, clubs, workshops & focus groups and our exclusive members-only app, which provides access to all of our content at the click of a button, and all within one annual Membership fee.

Together, we can go further.

7. Aptean Respond

The Aptean Respond Complaint Management System has been used by a diverse roster of organisations across the globe for 30 years. In the UK alone, 65% of FCA regulated complaints are processed using Respond.

Faced with ever-increasing customer expectations and the pressure of stringent regulatory requirements, our customers have to work harder than ever to achieve complaints excellence. With Respond at the heart of your complaints function, it’s possible to nurture long-term customer relationships, managing complaints and leveraging feedback to drive real business improvements, all while optimising customer service and ensuring water-tight compliance with even the most stringent regulatory requirements.

Respond’s functionality has been finely tuned to address the very issues businesses are facing on a daily basis. We understand the individual needs of complaints handlers and teams, as well as the end-to-end complaint journey, using our knowledge, experience and expertise to help businesses best manage the entire complaints and dispute process.

A flexible and agile solution, Respond gives you the ability to deal with complaints efficiently and professionally, increasing the consistency, speed and quality of resolutions, while achieving optimum outcomes for both the customer and your organisation, as well as ensuring the fair treatment of vulnerable customers. The ability to carry out route cause analyses helps to identify any trends and issues, with in-depth feedback capture mechanisms generating vital actionable insights into how you can deliver continuous improvements across the business.

› End-to-end complaint management to resolve complaints faster

› A single version of the truth

› Able to handle even the most complex of complaints

› Configurable to suit your specific business needs

› In-depth root case analysis to identify underlying issues

› Comprehensive dashboards for easy access to key metrics

› Quality assurance as standard

› Out-of-the-box compliance

“The Complaints Coffee Club has really helped me to consider alternative ways of approaching similar issues. Its always good to know that other organisations face some of the same challenges and by sharing different ways of tackling them we can consider what would work best in our business areas. I’ve also enjoyed sharing my experiences and ideas that have worked, and I hope that this is helping others.”

“The Complaints Coffee Club is a great platform to discuss shared issues with likeminded complaint handlers and leaders from across sectors. It provides a means to collaborate, share and bring fresh insight to your business.”

“The Complaints Coffee Club has really helped us understand all the great stuff, and the challenges that are occurring in all aspects of customer complaints, across a variety of industries. We talk openly and honestly about processes, customer behaviour and emerging trends. I always take a gold nugget away which helps form some interesting discussion points within my business.”

“The challenges that we had set upon us recently may have seemed a setback for most but at a difficult time during the pandemic and beyond, the complaints coffee club supported us and other organisations to understand we weren’t alone and others were facing similar challenges.

By shaping the coffee club around a question it adds value to hear of successful outcomes but also allows an honest approach to the challenges.”

Heart

8. What does the UK complaints community have to say?

“The Complaints Coffee Club has always provided interesting and useful topics for companies to discuss together and share thoughts which allow us to review our own processes and see how we can improve our own complaints department.”

About Aptean

Aptean is one of the world’s leading providers of purpose-built, industry-specific software that helps manufacturers and distributors effectively run and grow their businesses. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Aptean’s products, services and unmatched expertise help businesses of all sizes to be Ready for What’s Next, Now®. Aptean is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

learn more about Aptean and the markets we serve, visit www.aptean.com