The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has said it is fully committed to making improvements to their service for their customers; both service providers and consumers, and they want to support service providers to do the same.
In their recently published overview of annual complaints report, it highlights the main complaint drivers and how to make improvements to avoid complaints in each area of law. Included throughout are case studies which bring the issues to life and remind us all that at the end of every complaint is an unhappy customer. Customers rely on the profession to help them navigate complex legal processes, quite often at very stressful times in their lives. According to the LeO, during 2020/21 there was evidence of poor service in 55% of complaints.
The data in the report suggests that there are improvements to make and shows that the basics remain key. Simple customer service failings are driving a huge bulk of work to the Ombudsman. LeO says, poor communication is a common thread; a complaint about delay is quite often because the service provider hasn’t updated the customer. A complaint about costs is often due to service providers not updating their customers as things progress. Improving communication with customers could, therefore, have a big impact on the number of complaints firms receive.
Paul McFadden, Chief Ombudsman, said ‘there needs to be a clear sense that providers learn from and respond to mistakes. Our part in this is providing the learning and insight from the thousands of complaints we investigate and resolve to support the sector in understanding the areas where customer service needs to improve and where service providers can do more to resolve complaints themselves.’
The LeO has a suite of information available to support service providers available on their website under ‘information centre - learning resources.’ They have also recently introduced an advice desk which provides service providers with direct access to an ombudsman. Talking to an Ombudsman may help to resolve issues early on. To access this simply email: technical.advice@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Lots of other useful resources can be found on their website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Joanna Connolly, Chair SPG