The case where nobody answered for five weeks
Your association has a code of practice that member firms sign up to, and a complaints process for customers who are unhappy with a member. A customer emails about a member firm that has not finished a job. Your complaints officer writes to the firm, who replies to a colleague's email address instead. The customer chases. The complaints officer is on holiday for a week. By the time anyone reads the firm's reply, the customer has been waiting five weeks and has posted about it online, naming your association.
The complaints officer keeps a spreadsheet of open cases, but the actual case lives across two or three inboxes. Deadlines under your procedure are worked out in their head. When the conduct committee asks how many complaints a particular firm has had in two years, the answer involves an afternoon of searching.
Why complaint cases go astray
- Correspondence with the customer and the firm runs in separate email threads, sometimes in different inboxes.
- Your procedure's stages and response windows are written in a document, not tracked per case.
- The case log records outcomes but not the exchanges that led to them.
- Nothing links complaints to the member record, so patterns across a firm's cases are hard to see.
- Cover during leave depends on someone remembering to check another person's inbox.
What your code requires of members and what your process promises customers are for your board and advisers to set. The failure we deal with is the tracking.
What lost complaints cost
Your code of practice is only credible if complaints are handled as the code says. Missed stages and slow replies make the scheme look toothless, to the public and to the member firms who follow the rules and resent those who do not. A complaint handled badly by the association can end up being about the association rather than the firm.
The conduct or scheme committee also needs to see patterns. A firm with repeated complaints may need attention under your rules, and without a proper record that pattern stays invisible until something serious happens.
A case system that follows your procedure
We build a complaints case system around your code of practice and link it to the member record.
- Customers submit a complaint through a web form that asks for the details your procedure needs, including the firm, the job and what they have already tried.
- Each case is linked to the member firm, and the firm's scheme contact receives it through a secure link, where they reply and upload documents.
- Every exchange, with both sides, is held on the case, whether it arrives by the portal or by email to a case-specific address.
- Your procedure's stages are set up in the system, with the response window for each; the case shows what is due next and when, and warns the officer before a deadline passes.
- Cases can be reassigned during leave, with nothing left in a personal inbox.
- Outcomes and reasons are recorded in a consistent form, and the committee sees reports by firm, category and outcome.
| Stage (example) | What the system tracks | Who acts |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint received | Eligibility check against your rules | Complaints officer |
| Referred to member firm | Firm's response window | Member firm |
| Firm's response sent to customer | Customer's reply window | Customer |
| Association review | Review deadline, documents | Complaints officer or panel |
| Closed | Outcome, reasons, any follow-up | Recorded for committee reporting |
An AI model can help summarise a long case file for a panel, labelled as a summary, but decisions and every letter are your staff's.
The complaints office afterwards
The complaints officer starts the day with a list of cases due for action, sorted by deadline. Nothing sits unread in a colleague's inbox. Customers and firms can see where the case is without phoning. And the committee receives a report by member firm, so a pattern is visible long before it becomes a headline.
Is your complaints process at risk?
- Case correspondence sits in more than one inbox.
- Deadlines under your procedure are worked out by hand.
- You cannot quickly list a member firm's past complaints.
- Customers phone to ask what is happening with their case.
- Cover during leave is informal.