Taken from News and
Comment from Roy Lilley from nhs.manager net
Roy's rules for handling complaints!
Listen, don't
justify, sympathise, make notes, agree a course of action and follow through.
Listen: Say to the person with the complaint; 'I want you to tell me exactly what's wrong. I want to listen to you and find out'. Tell me, exactly what happened.
Listen: Say to the person with the complaint; 'I want you to tell me exactly what's wrong. I want to listen to you and find out'. Tell me, exactly what happened.
Don't justify; if you were plagued with staff
sickness, the phones were down, the computers didn't work, the post was late...
is of no interest to the person with the complaint. Focus on them.
Justification will look like an excuse.
Sympathise: Saying; 'From what you tell me this must have been: very cross-making; painful; disappointing; distressing' - is not the same as admitting liability.
Make it clear you are making a note; 'I just want to make a note of all this so I can be sure I understand'. It's part of active-listening and demonstrates you are really interested.
Agree a course of action: 'I'll talk to the nurses/receptionist/ doctor and make sure it doesn't happen again/change it/fix it. Is that OK with you?' Or; 'I don't have all the details to deal with this and I'll look into it and ring you tonight... tomorrow... next week with the answer'.
And, the deal-maker/breaker; follow through. Do what you said you would do and tell 'em if you can't.
Complaints can be worrying, disruptive, vexatious, false, heartfelt and pride denting. Complaints are disturbing but not knowing and not dealing with them is business suicide. Making complaints a fulcrum point of change and a lever to doing what you do better is a no-brainer.
Sympathise: Saying; 'From what you tell me this must have been: very cross-making; painful; disappointing; distressing' - is not the same as admitting liability.
Make it clear you are making a note; 'I just want to make a note of all this so I can be sure I understand'. It's part of active-listening and demonstrates you are really interested.
Agree a course of action: 'I'll talk to the nurses/receptionist/ doctor and make sure it doesn't happen again/change it/fix it. Is that OK with you?' Or; 'I don't have all the details to deal with this and I'll look into it and ring you tonight... tomorrow... next week with the answer'.
And, the deal-maker/breaker; follow through. Do what you said you would do and tell 'em if you can't.
Complaints can be worrying, disruptive, vexatious, false, heartfelt and pride denting. Complaints are disturbing but not knowing and not dealing with them is business suicide. Making complaints a fulcrum point of change and a lever to doing what you do better is a no-brainer.
No comments:
Post a Comment