A complaint that sat in the wrong inbox
A client sends a long, unhappy email to their fee earner about delay and cost. The fee earner, upset and busy, replies briefly and does not pass it on. Three weeks later the client writes again, this time to the senior partner, saying nobody has acknowledged their complaint. The complaints partner hears about it for the first time and finds the firm is already behind its own timetable.
The complaints log is a spreadsheet. The entry is added that day, dated that day, which is not when the complaint really arrived.
Why complaints handling slips
Complaints do not arrive labelled. They come in as an angry email, a comment on a phone call, a note on a bill payment or a review online. The person who receives them is often the person being complained about, which is the worst person to decide whether it counts as a complaint.
Once logged, the timetable depends on someone remembering it. Spreadsheets do not send reminders, and complaints partners are also fee earners with their own caseloads.
| Stage | Where it tends to go wrong |
|---|---|
| Recognising a complaint | Fee earner treats it as a normal grumble |
| Logging it | Logged late, with the wrong date |
| Acknowledging it | Depends on the complaints partner seeing it |
| Investigating and responding | No reminders against your procedure's timetable |
| Closing and learning | Outcome not recorded, no view of themes |
What a slipped complaint costs
A complaint handled late is harder to resolve, because the client's frustration now includes the handling as well as the original problem. If it goes further, the firm has to show how it handled the complaint, and a spreadsheet with a late entry does not help.
The firm also misses the chance to learn. Without a proper record, nobody can see that most complaints in a department are about the same thing.
How we build a complaints log
- Capture from anywhere: staff can log a complaint from Outlook with one click, from the practice management system, or through a short form for phone complaints. The original email or note is attached and the date it was received is kept.
- Possible complaint flag: incoming client emails with wording that looks like a complaint can be flagged to the complaints partner for a quick look, so recognition does not depend only on the fee earner concerned.
- Owner and timetable: each complaint is assigned to a handler who is not the person complained about, and the steps and time limits in your firm's procedure are set as dates.
- Reminders: the handler is reminded before each step is due, and the complaints partner sees anything at risk.
- Record: acknowledgements, investigation notes and responses are drafted from your templates and saved to the complaint, with every date recorded.
- Themes: each closed complaint is tagged with the cause and outcome, so partners can see patterns by team or type of work.
The system keeps the timetable and the record. Whether something is a complaint, and how it is resolved, is for your firm under its own procedure.
What your complaints partner sees
Every complaint appears in one place from the day it arrived, with its owner, stage and next deadline. Reminders arrive before steps are due. Letters are on the record. And a few times a year, the partners can look at what complaints are actually about and fix causes instead of symptoms.
Fee earners also find it easier to hand a complaint on when there is a simple button for it.
Questions to ask yourself
- Complaints are logged in a spreadsheet.
- The complaints partner sometimes hears about a complaint late.
- Complaint timetables rely on memory.
- Letters about complaints are scattered across inboxes.
- Nobody reviews what complaints have in common.