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Section 4 Techniques and Tools

4.16 Using comments, compliments and complaints as feedback

The Performance Standards expect that social housing organisations will ensure that service users are able to make complaints or challenge decisions and that they will be treated fairly when they do so and, where appropriate, receive effective redress. Inspectors are likely to criticise landlords that do not use complaints as a source of feedback from which to improve service delivery.

Practice Point

• Complaints schemes should be used as a valuable source of service user feedback on service quality.

Complaint schemes tend to record formal complaints in which the service user is seeking explicit redress and of course, it is vital to regularly monitor and act on such complaints. However, many ‘complaints’ may go unrecorded, yet both formal and informal complaints and suggestions can be a valuable source of information about service users’ views of service provision. They can be used alongside other data collection techniques to help assess performance, highlight areas of good practice and to help improve service quality and delivery. More detailed information can be collected to help identify patterns or causes of complaints in relation to geographical areas or service user characteristics.

It may be necessary to train staff to see informal ‘complaints’ as a valued source of learning and to record them consistently. It may also be necessary to allow time to investigate the substance of a ‘complaint’ (beyond the formal need to establish if redress is warranted) in order to understand what happened and to draw out the wider lessons.

If complaints are to be useful as a source of feedback it is likely that complaints systems will need to be reviewed to ensure clarity and consistency in recording and analysis. All complaints including informal ones should be recorded and classified appropriately across the organisation, although it will be important to ensure that this does not become too bureaucratic or burdensome for staff.

It may be helpful to consider what is actually meant by a complaint. For example, if service users request information but these requests can only be recorded as complaints, statistics reflecting the number of complaints received may be misleading.

To clarify and expand the value of these kinds of feedback systems it may be more accurate and helpful to consider three broad categories that are commonly known as the ‘3 Cs’:

• Comments: suggestions and ideas about services and service delivery; requests for information.

• Compliments: comments expressing appreciation or acknowledging that something has been done well.

• Complaints: comments expressing dissatisfaction or informing that something has gone wrong and needs to be put right.

A system that also welcomes and records ‘compliments’ can be highly valuable. It is linked to the idea of being appreciative and finding what is working and why, as well as what is not. Compliments and acknowledgements of efforts can have a positive impact on staff morale and performance so it is important to consider how these comments can be fed back to staff.

Appropriate recording and classification enables analysis of the number of complaints and other types of comments and also enables trends or patterns to be monitored. Analysis of outcomes will also be valuable. Once such systems are in place, landlords should be able to gain useful intelligence about particular experiences of service delivery – either service failure or success – which may have wider implications for service design or contain valuable insights into the user experience.

It is important that service users are provided with accessible ways to put forward their feedback and there should also be appropriate access for speakers of other languages, people with disabilities and members of groups that are excluded, hard-to-reach or isolated.

Ethical research practice is a particular issue. Because 3Cs feedback is likely to be from a relatively small number of ‘cases’ or responses, there is the risk that parties involved could be easily identified so it is important to address issues of anonymity and confidentiality particularly, but not exclusively, in relation to complaints. Appropriate safeguards should be provided for both the complainant and staff or contractors. The point of using feedback in this way is not to allocate blame, but to draw out wider lessons and therefore the identity of the parties is not really the point.

The use of comments, compliments and complaints systems as a source of feedback should be treated like any other approach to research and consultation; regular reporting to both service users, in-house staff and contractors (where relevant) should be provided and should encourage future input.

Using comments, compliments and complaints as feedback: checklist

√ Review existing complaints schemes to ensure clarity and consistency in recording and analysis.

√ Ensure that both formal and informal complaints are recorded.

√ Consider the definition of a ‘complaint’ and whether the use of different categories, such as the ‘3 C’s’, would provide more useful, actionable information.

√ Be appreciative: be open to compliments and convey them to staff.

√ Monitor and report on feedback on a regular basis, including the analysis of trends and patterns in notification of comments, compliments and complaints and outcomes and use the information to improve services where necessary.

√ Consider ethical safeguards to ensure anonymity and confidentiality where appropriate.

√ Consider the need for training staff to value all kinds of feedback as a source of learning rather than to allocate blame.

√ Investigate the substance of a complaint more fully in order to understand what happened and to draw out the wider lessons.

Alternatives and related approaches:

• Using existing information

• Using stories

• Mystery shopping

• Significant event analysis

• System mapping

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