In an article for the February 2012 edition of Managing for success, the Law Management Section's magazine, Chief Ombudsman Adam Sampson explains how complaints can be a positive experience for a firm, offering an opportunity to communicate with your customers, put something right if it has gone wrong, or clear up a misunderstanding, hopefully meaning they will stay with you in future. They can also help you improve your service to avoid complaints in future, mitigating the time, cost and reputational risks complaints potentially pose.
He highlights two examples of recent complaints against law firms, and how the firms' actions helped resolve the complaints effectively.
The power of sorry
A firm gave negligent advice, leading to a will being invalid. We found that the firm had indeed made serious errors, but that, since it had taken immediate steps to put things right, including apologising and passing the matter over to their insurers, it had provided a reasonable level of service, so no remedy beyond the apology the firm had already offered was required.
Good will rewarded
A firm contributed to a delay in a house purchase and did not keep its clients informed effectively of the delay, so the couple involved could not move on the agreed date, and incurred a cancellation fee from their removal company. The firm offered the couple compensation – partly in acknowledgement of some fault in their service, and partly as a goodwill gesture - but the couple refused it as too little. We found that a fair amount required as a remedy for the inconvenience and anxiety caused was actually only half the amount the firm had offered. The complainants accepted this decision, and the firm paid the remedy.
Read the full article (PDF)