Overview

The Housing Ombudsman has placed a greater focus on complaints being resolved at the local level, resulting in increased scrutiny to excel at customer services and complaints handling.

To ensure your organisation can effectively handle complaints from the first response, staff must understand how to structure their complaints procedure, communicate efficiently and write comprehensible responses and resolutions to complaints.

This Developing Effective Written Responses to Complaints course will focus on how to deliver effective responses to complaints.

Through a series of practical exercises and workshops delegates will leave the day with the techniques and the confidence to respond effectively to complaints through letters.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understand what is working and what needs improvement in housing services complaints letter writing
  • Learn from best practice how to respond to a complaint
  • Effectively assess and plan your reply
  • Develop practical written techniques to elicit information from colleagues
  • Create credible correspondence moving forward
All the Understanding ModernGov courses are Continuing Professional Development (CPD) certified, with signed certificates available upon request for event.

Enquire About In-House Training

To speak to someone about a bespoke training programme, please contact us:
0800 542 9414
[email protected]

Agenda

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09:15 - 09:45

Coffee and Registration

09:45 - 10:00

Trainer's Welcome and Introduction

10:00 - 10:45

Housing Complaints: What is Working – and What Needs to Improve

  • Overview of trends and insight into the most common complaints
  • Understand the effect complaints have on both staff and the people who depend on the level of service they provide
10:45 - 11:30

Best and Bad Practice

  • Assess a range of real-life correspondence
  • Identify best practice use of style, tone, vocabulary, presentation of facts and evidence and expert comment
11:30 - 11:45

Morning Break

11:45 - 12:45

Assessing and Planning Your Reply

  • Understand how correspondents want their complaint handled and what they expect from the reply
  • Develop planning tools to create a suitable reply
  • Identify ‘trigger’ point from correspondence to provide better responses
12:45 - 13:45

Lunch

13:45 - 14:30

Summarising Detail

  • How to summarise complex information into language and a structure that can be easily understood
  • Introduce a six part grid to help with this process
14:30 - 16:00

Creating Credible Correspondence

In this practical session, delegates will create and give feedback on a range of letters to review and refresh personal skills.

  • Utilise skills developed throughout the day to create letters
  • Develop your own best practice
  • Identify areas for improvement
16:00 - 16:15

Closing Remarks and End