SCENARIO:
Huntswood partnered with its client in a number of operational areas, and was asked to deliver an independent review into the effectiveness of complaint handling across three brands following a large acquisition, supporting the deployment of a more unified, efficient approach. Our recommendations supported tangible productivity and cost improvements, but also helped empower staff to deliver more confidently for customers.
We reviewed the brands’ policies, processes, training and guidance, quality assurance approaches, systems, MI and reporting from both an operational and regulatory perspective, delivering deep insight on best practice and efficiency, supported by industry data from Huntswood’s original research paper, Complaints Outlook.
Through extensive call listening, side-by-side observation and supported by the document review, we identified instances of over-reporting, which was more prevalent within one brand. We delivered detailed recommendations around this, including policy and training updates which focused on definition and materiality.
We recommended the creation of a clear goodwill policy which provided the requisite autonomy for Agents, allowing them to react with confidence to the customer circumstances they encountered.
We made a series of recommendations around MI specification and the root cause analysis approach, with the aim of helping the firm better understand and socialise performance trends across the operation, helping to calibrate Agents, Managers, QA and Trainers.
With the tendency to over-report controlled, greater clarity on performance and guidance on the identification of complaints, the number of complaints resolved at first point of contact increased by 85% (from 10% of complaints to 68%).
