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Claims and Complaints - minimise and optimise

The problem

The key factors

The effects

The solution

We all want to minimise the adverse effects of both claims and complaints, but do we in practice?

It is often said that claims and complaints cost a great deal of time and money. This is not really true. The root cause of that expense is the error or omission or other failing which gave rise to the claim or complaint. The problems are also much wider than just monetary cost or wasted time.

Several key factors are needed to be able to minimise both the numbers of claims and complaints and their adverse effects and to optimise their management and their teaching potential. In brief, these are:

Definitions	A clear and agreed understanding of what constitutes a claim and what constitutes a complaint
Strategy	Getting it right, from the start - too often things are exacerbated because the correct decisions have not been made at the outset
Control and consistency	Ensuring that you are taking charge of the matter, rather than merely responding to it, and that internal systems are working
Trust and understanding	Within the firm and - importantly - outside it, with insurers (or other external claims handlers), the Legal Complaints Service and others
Efficient working	Much of this comes down to record-keeping, management & communications systems and imaginative use of technology
Learning from experience	Capturing and using all aspects of what can be learned from past problems, near misses and the experiences of others
Refining procedures	Communicating improvements (achieved from experience) across the firm, to make real changes

The adverse effects of both claims and complaints certainly involve additional (unproductive) work and either lost fees or compensatory payments (whether insured or not). Insurance is an important and necessary tool, but its cost can be reduced considerably by demonstrating informed and practical systems.

Many firms simply do not know how much time and expense go into handling complaints and claims, in terms of work done by the original fee earner, senior colleagues within the department, support staff (including accounts, IT etc), other colleagues (for example in Litigation) and senior management.

The adverse effects, however, go much further than that. Errors and problems damage morale within the firm - at all levels - with a knock-on effect to confidence in front of clients. Most importantly, though, is the effect on the firm's reputation. Where so many clients are obtained and retained on the basis of trust and on the recommendation of others, the firm's reputation is the all-important differentiating factor. So much good work to build reputation can be undone disproportionately by adverse press or a dissatisfied customer.

Some level of claims and complaints is almost inevitable in any practice. What can be controlled, however, is

how high a level

how much time and expense are involved

to what extent past problems are repeated

external perceptions

whether the opportunity an error provides to show our true standards is optimised

whether we truly learn and act from experience or just respond to each minor emergency

With many years of experience of setting up and running such systems, we can help you to optimise your procedures for managing claims and complaints and to minimise the need for them!

We would strongly recommend a short initial assessment of your existing systems, structures and needs. In most cases, we can make immediate suggestions for improvements in several of the areas mentioned above. Sometimes only minor improvments will be possible; on other occasions systems need to be completely revamped.

In any event, what problems exist and what is recommended to address them can usually be established in an initial user-friendly consultation. At Uncommon Solutions, we are ideally placed to give the practical advice which you need.

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