Why complaints should be valued

You may think it is an alien concept to consider that any complaint should be valued. Dealing with complaints is a costly, time-consuming exercise, so why would you value that experience?

Complaints can take you away from the work that you are engaged for by the client, which is the lifeblood of your business. With the advent of outcome-focused regulation and the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), more emphasis than ever before is put on the consumer and their expectations of the firm. Not least of this is the new 'pre-client' complaint, which means that you have to be aware of the potential for complaints to come from any source, irrespective of whether they are an 'actual client' or indeed a 'potential client'.

Valuing a complaint can be hard to achieve: complaints usually evoke comments such as 'annoying', 'frustrating', 'waste of time', 'unjustified' - all of which can be true. But, try looking at this from a different perspective. Your client has used their valuable time to put something in writing to you. What do you do then?

New perspective

You have to address the complaint, so this will involve looking at the file. You may well have carried out the work on that file and feel you know it inside out, but have you looked at it from the perspective of the client? You are more likely to have dealt with it as the expert solicitor handling their legal matter.

Take a step back and consider what the service would look like to you if you were a client:

• Was the client kept adequately updated?

• Were the client's calls and e-mails answered?

• Does the costs information make sense to a lay client?

• Would they know what the level of costs was?

• Would the client know when they were likely to be billed?

• Would they be aware of any 'other' costs they might be responsible for?

• Were all of their queries answered?

• Were all of their points addressed?

• Did you follow their instructions, or did you just do what you knew to be best, without explaining this to the client? and

• Did you ask for instructions

What can you learn? Reviewing the file may well bring up issues that need addressing, such as any trends or further training needs of staff. This gives you the opportunity to avert any further complaints about the same issues in the future - a valuable learning experience. Your clients are the main asset of your company: valuing them and the opportunity they are providing you to improve your business can only be a good thing.

External complaints management

For some, the use of expert external support in complaints management can be a time-saving and cost-effective solution with a number of benefits, such as:

• Saving on significant lost fee-earning time (and therefore lost revenue);

• Reducing stress and worry for staff and partners;

• Providing a more independent review from the client's perspective;

• Providing added experience in dealing with LeO should the complaint be escalated; and

• Delivering feedback and advice to help firms learn and identify problems.

For many firms, the cost of managing a complaint themselves in lost fee-earning time, admin resources, and so on, will far outweigh the cost of using an external expert service, and will deliver poorer results for them and the client.

Barbara Spoor is head of complaints management at Esterase