Build a business case for complaint management software

Do you want your leadership team to start putting complaints investment high on their agenda? This guide helps you use the data, language, and strategy that will make an impact on their decision-making.

Getting leadership to invest in new software is rarely straightforward, especially when it supports a team that’s often seen as a “cost drain” and doesn’t perform a sales or marketing function.

If you lead complaints, you already know where the problems lie: manual processes, wasted time on tasks that don’t add value, missed SLAs, always being short-staffed, and spending too much time reporting.

But convincing leadership to invest in change? That’s where it gets tough.

This guide is here to help.

It gives you the numbers, impact, and language to make a business case for complaint case management software (CCMS), that leadership teams can’t ignore. It uses data and speaks the language of strategy and measurable outcomes, not just aged operational problems.

Why complaint handling feels expensive and what’s actually to blame for it

The real revenue leakage doesn’t come from the complaints themselves. It often comes from the inefficient process being used to manage them.

And this is how you frame your case for investment in a Complaint Case Management System:

“We’re asking for a strategic solution to stop losing unnecessary time and money to a broken process.”

In the Anatomy of Work report by Asana, a staggering 60% of time is spent on activites that absorb time, energy and attention, but offer little or no return. Over half of a working week is spent trawling through messy inboxes, inbound chasing calls, and having to switch between multiple tools to manage cases.

Outdated tools and manual workarounds waste capacity, and these costs add up fast. Often, the total complaint cost isn’t split out and analysed, so it’s assumed that it’s the actual complaint eating into the bottom line, rather than an internal operational process.

With the specialist complaint software to support them, complaint teams have achieved:

• 88% time saved on reporting (from 48 hours/month to just 6)

• 9-day reduction in average complaint resolution time

• 87% less time spent trying to capturing data

• 80% reduction in manual errors

Imagine what this could mean for your team and the business:

• Faster resolutions

• Happier customers

• Reporting from one source, so you really know what's going on

• Time to focus on root causes and proactive solutions

• Collaboration with all stakeholders so everyone remains on the same page

This isn’t about chasing efficiency for efficiency’s sake; it’s about freeing up resources to have a measurable impact and improve outcomes.

How better complaint handling reduces risk and protects the business

The right CCMS helps you identify risks early, avoid escalation, and prove fairness, consistency, and timeliness to regulators such as the FCA.

“This isn’t just about handling complaints. It’s about reducing risk, evidencing your outcomes, and improving customer satisfaction.”

Manual tracking leads to missed insights, long delays, and gaps in audit trails. With the right CCMS in place, complaint teams have achieved:

• 92% reduction in FOS referrals

• 47% reduction in FOS upheld complaints

• 99% of cases resolved within FCA timeframes

All regulators are raising the bar on consumer fairness. Submitting figures in regulatory reports and then forgetting about them until they are next due, no longer meets expectations. It's now all about being able to produce consistent, defensible processes, and to do this, you need reliable, traceable data.

How complaint handling impacts retention and revenue

“Every complaint is a chance to win back trust or lose the customer for good.”

The stats say it all.

• Acquiring a new customer costs 5-25 times more than retaining one (Invesp)

• A 5% increase in retention can boost profits by 25-95% (Bains)

Yet, complaint teams still face problems such as:

• Customers and stakeholders always chasing updates - more time is spent on these than investigating the issue

• Avoidable escalations that could have been prevented - due to customers becoming more frustrated with the process

• Repeated problems due to inefficient data collection for root cause analysis

• Reporting from different sources, so you don't really know what's going on

• Lost time in trying to find files, messages, and evidence

• Lack of coordination between all parties - wasted time spent going round in circles

• Not enough staff due to sick leave and other absences

• Too many gaps in knowledge - staff keep leaving because of the constant pressure

• Poor reviews due to lack of transparency and communication

Great complaint handling keeps customers loyal, drives lifetime value, and eliminates the chaos that comes from fixing the same problems twice.

Why poor complaint handling helps your competitors win

“Unresolved complaints are wide open doors. You're inviting your competitors to walk through them and take your customers.”

Disappointed customers don’t always escalate internally. Instead they leave bad reviews, talk to competitors and disengage from your brand.

It’s not just churn; it’s brand erosion, pipeline loss, and missed referrals.

“Fix the process, and you’re not just improving resolution efficiency, you’re protecting your brand.”

When broken systems burn out good people

Spreadsheets, constant phone calls, backlogs that go on forever, and chaotic inboxes don’t just slow your team down; they burn them out.

Burnout leads to:

• Turnover of staff and knowledge loss within the team

• Delayed handovers and missed SLAs from staff calling in sick

• Weakened morale naturally affects productivity and efficiency

• An increased risk that cases will not be handled consistently

• Disengagement from the customers and the brand

• Service levels drop, customer frustrations rise, and a constant downward spiral is created

• Costly onboarding - time and money spent on recruiting

• New team members miss out on adequate training and support

Fixing your system isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about performance, resilience, consistency, and keeping your best people from working elsewhere.

How to build a business case that your leadership team will love

You don’t need a ten-page strategy doc. At first, you’ve got about 60 seconds, maybe less, to get someone’s attention.

“ They’ll skim or half-listen for something that interests them, then decide whether to spend more time on it.”

Yes, understanding your audience helps. But it’s not essential in the early moments.

What matters most is that you can clearly summarise three things:

• What's broken

• What's possible to fix

• What's at stake

1. Summarise the current challenges

Focus on what leadership can’t ignore: delays, escalations, spiralling costs, risk exposure, staff attrition, manual reporting, and poor visibility.

2. Use data to show what it’s costing the business not having a CCMS

Whomever you end up trying to convince will need to then convince other colleagues in the C-level leadership team that it’s worth it. To do this, they need to see the numbers.

Use your internal metrics and compare them with those reported by teams already using a CCMS (see below). This will help you show how much can be saved and importantly, how quickly they will see a return on investment (ROI).

For example:

• 92% reduction in FOS referrals - how much do you currently spend on FOS referral fees and D&I costs. What would a 92% reduction mean in real terms?

• 9-day faster resolution – how many days would an average case be open in your team?

• 75% fewer active cases – how would this improve current SLAs and future headcount?

• 88% time saved on reporting – how many hours does this give back you and the team each month?

• Up to 95% profit uplift from retention – ask, if the team could reduce churn by 10%, how would this impact the bottom line?

3. Explain the impact on customers and teams across the business

Focus on outcomes, try to provide metrics wherever possible because it’s likely that this will have to be discussed in a budget meeting. Financial and regulatory metrics add weight :

• Customer trust and satisfaction - you may use review scores to measure

• Team knowledge and morale - you may use internal metrics

• Customer acquisition costs and retention - ask for the current numbers

• Reliable data tells the business what customers think of products and services, and what they need

• The downside of using fragmented data for business decision making

4. Define what holistic success looks like

We’ve set out strategies for success; now to pull it all together. The right CCMS will enable you to do the following:

• Faster resolutions

• Consistently fair outcomes because of structured processes

• Vulnerable customers are protected and this can be evidenced in the data

• Process costs are mitigated

• Increased volumes don’t mean increased headcount

• Reduced churn rates mean higher customer retention

• The return of investment could be seen in months, not years

5. Be clear on what you’re asking for

Lay out next steps:

• Access to a free trial, or time to showcase the free trail results

• The subscription budget, or sign off for X number of seats if you have the pricing information

• Internal sign-off timeline if you can’t get an immediate decision - don’t forget to mention if no dev time is required to get started

The final call to action

This isn’t a complex project. It’s a fast, high-impact upgrade that frees capacity and transforms complaint outcomes from day one.

Complyr recognises that budgets in all businesses are tight and whilst the subscription fees are manageable, the high upfront cost of the CCMS is often a barrier to adoption. We know that this is a common challenge for businesses and are committed to helping you overcome it.

We have susbscription plans to suit any budget and help you get the most value for your money. The system is easy to configure and you don't need dev/IT knowledge to install it. If you choose this option you’ll save upfront set up fees.

“We feel strongly that good complaint management should be accessible to everyone, and not denied to those with less resources.”

Get in touch to sign up for the free trial or to learn more about Complyr. We promise no hard sales pitch, we’ll just give you what you need.