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September 26, 2023
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Complaints Handling Training
Handling complaints is never easy. This interactive half-day course helps organisations to improve the way that they respond to complaints. The session looks at how best to meet the needs of those complaining, but also at how the organisation can get the most out of the information that complaints provide.
COURSE:
Complaints Handling Training
DURATION:
1/2 Day
Overview
The course
Modules
Overview
Complaints handling training course for organisations
Handling complaints is never easy but doing so effectively is crucial to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the risk of legal action and damage to brand reputation.
This interactive half-day course helps organisations to improve the way that they respond to complaints. The session looks at how best to meet the needs of those complaining, but also at how the organisation can get the most out of the information that complaints provide.
As well as how to respond to, and handle a complaint at Stage 1, our Complaints Handling Training gives internal managers and governance teams the exact skills they need to conduct legally robust, objective Stage 2 investigations that won’t get overturned if the case escalates to Stage 3 or the Ombudsman.
Interactive half-day complaints handling training
The course focusses on a practical approach – making sure that participants fully understand the organisation’s own complaints policy and taking them through practical examples to discover which approaches work best.
Verita provides a leading complaints management service, with this course run by an experienced practitioner who has advised numerous organisations on optimising their complaints processes.,
The course
The course covers:
- Practical skills for responding to complaints
- National standards and best practice in handling complaints
- The benefits of getting complaints handling right
- What can go wrong if complaints are handled badly
Learning points include:
- understanding the importance of setting clear parameters from the outset
- what to look for when appointing the investigative team
- what makes a good robust report that can withstand scrutiny and challenge
Modules
Foundations of best practice & regulatory standards
- Understand what defines a benchmark complaints process and the critical organisational impacts of getting it right or wrong
- Aligning your internal policy with the latest Ombudsman frameworks and sector-specific guidance (NHS, local government, or corporate)
- The organisational benefits of effective resolution vs. the operational friction, reputational damage, and financial risks of poorly handled escalations
Stage 1: Initial handling & early resolution
- Equip public-facing teams and line managers to handle immediate, local grievances swiftly and objectively
- Learning how to define the exact scope, boundaries, and expectations of a complaint from the very first interaction
- Practical skills for managing high-emotion or complex initial contacts with transparency and impartiality
Stage 2: Conducting robust internal investigations
- Explore the mechanics and challenges of managing formal Stage 2 complaints internally with structural objectivity
- Crucial criteria for what to look for when appointing an internal investigative team to ensure independence and avoid conflicts of interest
- Techniques for interviews, data collection, and objective analysis of conflicting accounts
- Understanding how to decide if a complaint is too sensitive or complex to be investigated internally
Stage 3: Report writing & ombudsman readiness
- Master the critical final internal stage by developing documentation that holds up under absolute scrutiny
- What makes a final investigation report or Stage 3 review comprehensive, legally sound, and capable of withstanding external challenge
- What to look for if appointing an external investigator
- Extracting actionable insights from outcomes (whether upheld or rejected) to drive organisational improvement and satisfy regulators
How To Apply?
All our training courses take place at your preferred location. If you would like to know more about our training courses please contact Verita senior consultant Nicola Salmon on 020 4794 5670 or via email at [email protected] to discuss your training needs in more detail.
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How To Apply?
All our training courses take place at your preferred location. If you would like to know more about our training courses please contact us on 020 7494 5670 or via email at [email protected] to discuss your training needs in more detail.
What Our Clients Say About Us
“Thank you for an excellent session yesterday. Informative and helpful, backed by a wealth of practical experience; just what we wanted and needed. Everyone came up to me afterwards to say how much they had enjoyed and appreciated it.”
“Verita is the undisputed market leader for investigations and reviews.”
Key Team Members & Associates
Peter Killwick
Peter has 25 years of consulting experience covering a variety of strategic and operational issues in a wide range of sectors including healthcare, automotive, financial services, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications and government.
Peter has extensive complaints handling experience and was the designer of Verita’s Complaint Handling Diagnostic Tool. He is the primary contact for the British Council contract, and so plays a key role in developing their process improvement actions, screening referred complaints for suitability for independent review and then leading the work for those complaints that we investigate.
Thea Walton is a senior leader and consultant with over 25 years’ experience overseeing handling complaints, in some of the UK’s most complex public sector environments and private sector business.
Her career spans the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme in Parliament, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, where she has led national teams, overseen high-profile investigations, and delivered systemic improvements in complaints handling and professional standards and ethics. She has also led work overseeing handling of allegations of violence against women and girls, and improving the experience of those needing to use complaints and oversight systems in a trauma informed way.
Explore Our Complaints Handling Insights
Find out more
All our training courses take place at your preferred location. If you would like to know more about our training courses please contact us on 020 7494 5670 or via email at [email protected] to discuss your training needs in more detail.