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Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2008 (text version)

3.2 Customer Feedback

During 2008, my Office continued with the quarterly survey of complainants’ perceptions of the service provided by my Office. Once again, complainants were surveyed on a broad range of issues in relation to their experience of the service which the Office had delivered in the course of the examination of their complaints. This survey continues to provide valuable feedback on the level of client satisfaction and the identification of areas of activity requiring improvement. Arising directly from feedback received, ongoing initiatives continue to address deficiencies in our service to customers. These include the need to give the clearest possible information to complainants at the outset of the examination of their complaints on the role of my Office, how the complaint examination process is conducted, arrangements to keep them informed of progress as the examination unfolds and the length of time the examination is likely to take to complete.

Some of the interesting findings disclosed by completed surveys are as follows:

• 84% of complainants were satisfied with how their initial contact was dealt with by the Office,
• 81%  were satisfied with the way that they were dealt with by members of staff,
• 79%  were satisfied with the way the investigation process was explained to them on first contact,
• 79%  were satisfied with the way they were dealt with by Ombudsman staff in the course of their investigation,
• 75%  were satisfied that they were given opportunities to explain their case,
• 68% were satisfied with the clarity of information, both verbal and written, given to them during the course of the investigation,
• 67% were satisfied with being kept advised of progress with their case, and
• 61%  were satisfied with the clarity of reasons given in the final decision letter.

In general, the experience has been that levels of satisfaction are hugely influenced by the outcome of the complaint and whether the result was positive or not, in the view of the complainant. As the Office is in the business of raising standards of public service by public bodies, we take very seriously the quality of our own service provision and we will be working to secure year-on-year, in complaint satisfaction levels.

In order to build on the findings, I intend to roll out for 2009 a more comprehensive quarterly feedback survey which will garner information, not just on satisfaction levels, but seek to go further in getting the type of feedback that can help us, both to further improve our service and manage expectations better.

So, for example, we will be trying to get a better sense as to the opinions of our complainants, sector by sector, on;

1. the outcome of their complaint at varying levels, ranging from “completely in their favour”, to “went completely against them”, and
2. the outcome they hoped for – apology, improved service, reversal of decision, financial compensation - compared with what actually happened.

In order to improve targeting of the least protected and most vulnerable people in society, who may not be aware of our services, we will be asking our customers how they found out about us. We will also seek more information about our customer base in terms of age, economic status, language, accessibility/disability issues, as well as ethnicity/cultural background. This will help us to monitor the changing customer base and adjust, on an ongoing basis, our administration/management policies to cope with the evolving needs of our customers and change in general.

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