Category

Complaint Handling

17.08.08 | Colin Adamson

Patient Feedback - the Canadian way Complaint Handling, Public Involvement, Surveys | (0)
The Lakeridge Health hospital at Oshawa, Ontario sends out a questionnaire and covering letter to those who have been discharged after a stay in hospital. For UK users of similar questionnaires, there will be few surprises both in the ground covered and the survey approach especially when you see that the company running the exercise is NRC Picker Canada. What impressed me the most was the quality of the covering letter which addresses questions that many managers prefer to avoid or gloss over when doing these sorts of surveys. For example, the letter confronts head on one of the main reasons why people do not respond. They are scared that if they say bad things about their stay in hospital, bad things will happen when they are back in. "Please feel free to express your opinions frankly and be assured that your future care at the hospital will not be negatively ...
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01.07.08 | Colin Adamson

July Newsletter: New Look, Same Passions Complaint Handling, Public Involvement, Schools, Surveys | (1)
Our passions remains the same but we have clothed our mix of news and views in new clothes knitted together with Wordpress which Dan Wardle of Surveylab our adviser in these matters assures us will bring the blog into the world of Web 2.0. On www.publicinvolvement.org.uk recently... A MP has asked why we are all so miserable? Are we becoming a nation of miserabilists never happier than when whingeing? We take a look at the latest Annual Report from the Financial Services Ombudsman for some facts and figures on the nation's complaint behaviour in the markets he covers. The principle of being fair to consumers is all the rage in regulatory circles and we look at the new laws banning unfair practices backed by new OFT research that tells us that 'consumer detriment' costs us as consumers over £6billion pounds a year. We join up our learning on complaints with our thinking ...
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30.06.08 | Colin Adamson

The Miserabilist Contribution to Happiness Complaint Handling, Ombudsman | (1)
The New Miserabilism? Complaints and the people who make them are often seen as confirmation of the new miserabilism - a condition that led an outburst from Tom Harris MP asking why everyone is so bloody miserable in a world where in the UK at least, we have a lot to be grateful for. A new book on complaining behaviour by Julian Baggini "The Complaint Book" (www.thecomplaintbook.com) mentions a sub-set of chronic complainants labelled by a psychologist as "help rejecting" people who prefer moaning to being given a solution. The Victor Meldrew persona certainly hit that vein. The Ombuds View What does the Financial Ombudsman say about all this in his latest latest Annual Report? There were two areas where numbers of complaints rose very sharply - complaints about current accounts which saw a five-fold increase and those about payment protection insurance up from 1832 in the year ending March 2007 to ...
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29.05.08 | Colin Adamson

The Hunt Review of the Financial Ombudsman Service - Opening Up, Reaching Out and Aiming High Complaint Handling, Ombudsman | (0)
The title has a bit of the ring of a rock anthem about it, don't you think? Up, Up and Away by the 5th Dimension? Or perhaps one of these inspirational business books that promise to get you out of that career rut. A big hallo then for the review of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) by the Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Wirral MBE available at http://www.thehuntreview.org.uk/ I took a look at what Lord Hunt (LH) identified as "the most contentious and difficult issue for this Review". It got a chapter of its own called "Transparency - Performance Data". The consumer bodies wanted lots of information with poorly performing companies 'named and shamed'. The companies resisted it for various fairly predictable reasons - one of which was that "consumers would not understand the information and might be misled by it." So easily confused they are - poor things. So consumer ...
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01.04.08 | Colin Adamson

When Citizens Complain – what should happen? Complaint Handling, Ombudsman | (1)
The Public Administration Select Committee are in the news for advocating a single entry point for public services complaints. Para 42. "We agree with Sir David Varney and the National Audit Office that the Government should explore the scope for a common access point nationwide for all non-emergency public services. This would provide a single point of contact for impartial information on where to make a complaint or seek redress. We restate our predecessor Committee's recommendation in favour of just such a service-'Public Services Direct'-which would offer an easy access, one-stop-shop approach to a complex web of public services. Public Services Direct should be both a gateway to government organisations and services, and a source of basic advice to public service users. It would act as the starting point for people unsure of how or where to lodge their initial complaint, and would provide them with the appropriate information and guidance." ...
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