The silent tax: Productivity loss in complaint handling

Asana’s Anatomy of Work research finds that teams spend up to 60% of their time coordinating tasks instead of producing meaningful work; a common occurrence in complaint teams, though the majority may not even be aware. They’re just trying to get things done, often with insufficient resources.

This silent tax of wasted time slows resolution, drives up costs, and increases customer frustration

Actions such as document hunting, answering repeated inbound chaser calls and emails, and reprioritising complaint tasks drain hours from resolving root causes and risk regulatory breach. Most firms underestimate this invisible time sink because it’s hard to track and rarely appears in the complaint management workflow or audit trail.

Common bottlenecks in complaint lifecycle management:

• Documents scattered in inboxes, chat, and spreadsheets

• Endless chaser phone calls and emails

• Team members are busy, but case investigations stall

• Staff morale dips, burnout rises, and complaint team retention suffers

• Staff turnover creates complaint lifecycle knowledge gaps

Real barriers to fast complaint resolution

Inside complaint teams, operational friction is a bigger barrier than any regulatory rule.

• Inboxes overflow with case updates

• Call queues prevent in-depth case review

• 8 weeks disappear in back-and-forth 'work about work'

• Escalations rise, negative reviews multiply

• Cases scatter across too many systems, and risk visibility drops

• Compliance breaches increase due to lack of coordination

Competitors circle, feeding off negative reviews. The board raises concerns, while costs and regulatory demands increase. Service level agreements (SLAs) slip, outcomes become inconsistent and unfair.

When the narrative of a complaint is fragmented, vulnerabilities and signs of risk are missed, leading to poor outcomes.

What fair complaint handling looks like

• Customers deserve timely, fair decisions backed by good reasoning and evidence

• Vulnerable customers require proactive support at critical moments in their lives

• Complaint teams should be measured by meaningful outcomes, not just the volume of actions

• In regulated industries, complaint consistency is part of treating customers fairly and meeting regulatory expectations

Regulatory bodies such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Office of Water Services (Ofwat), and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), expect firms to evidence how their complaint-handling process maps back to published standards, including full documentation in the compliance audit trail. Paper promises and unexecuted plans are insufficient in today’s regulatory climate.

Complaint teams in regulated industries: Meeting expectations

It doesn’t matter whether the sector is energy, water, housing, or financial services, complaint teams must treat customers fairly, document outcomes clearly, and deliver evidence-ready investigations that withstand regulatory scrutiny.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Consumer Duty, sets specific expectations around fair treatment and the complaint escalation process in financial services for all customers, including those who require additional support.

Regulators such as Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), the Office of Water Services (Ofwat), and the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS), all reinforce vulnerability detection and complaint lifecycle management best practices.

Three steps to better complaint handling efficiency

1. Make the work visible and coordinated

Draw the path from complaint intake to resolution.

• Name stages, owners, and when approvals are needed

• Define triage rules and time frames for prioritisation – e.g. vulnerable customers

• Publish your complaint workflow to all relevant teams to keep everyone on the same page

• Make the file referrals timeframes explicit – e.g. team leader authorisation must be delivered within 4 hours, to prevent permanent bottlenecks

💡 Start with the 5Cs of Complaint Handling to coordinate workflow, ensuring compliance oversight is not confused with micromanagement.

Why complaint workflow coordination matters:

• Aligns everyone toward fair case outcomes

• Prevents duplication, missed steps, and gaps in customer redress

• Clarifies roles and approvals for a full compliance audit trail

• Promotes efficiency, reducing complaint cycle times

• Safeguards context during file transfers or referrals, vital for evidence integrity

2. Measuring what matters: Outcomes over activity in complaint teams

Distinguish meaningful outcomes from noise.

• Isolate 'work about work' - the tasks that don’t move the complaint needle toward resolution

• Address one inefficiency at a time and retire reports or meetings that do not help decision-making or drive action

• Track only the KPIs (e.g., time to resolution, customer satisfaction, regulatory breach incidents) that drive trust and speed

💡 Use a fishbone diagram and 5 Whys analysis to pinpoint workflow bottlenecks.

3. The power of unification in complaint management systems and why they're essential

Adding staff won’t solve uncoordinated workflows or get you back your 60% of wasted time. Long-term risk reduction and productivity gains come from unifying complaint lifecycle management on a single platform.

• One system to log cases, tasks, files, approvals, and outcomes

• Approvals are enforced by workflow automation, not memory

• Audit trails and evidential records are ready for compliance reviews

• Dashboards provide real-time KPIs for C-suite oversight

• Reduces the tool sprawl, supports best practice complaint handling and customer satisfaction

Complyr makes complaint handling simple and coordinated, ensuring all parties can collaborate and cases are resolved within compliance boundaries, especially for regulated complaints.

How the silent tax hurts teams and customers

Complaint team morale, customer trust, and financial performance all suffer under the weight of workflow inefficiency.

• Acquisition costs rise, losing customers via negative reviews and escalation

• Retaining just 5% more customers can boost complaint-handling profit margins by up to 25% (Harvard Business Review)

• Staff turnover is high: 44% admit to calling in sick due to exhaustion and stress (MetLife)

• Productivity, knowledge, and service levels drop, especially when firefighting a complaint backlog

Continuous regulatory demands mean teams are always having to cobble together complaint processes. This leaves firms exposed to “super complaints” and industry investigation, as seen with the Which? super complaint about insurance sector failings.

Complaint handling for vulnerable customers: Regulatory risks and real impacts

The treatment of vulnerable customers is an important area of focus: failing to detect vulnerability during complaint casework damages brand trust and invites regulatory action. An example, the FCA fined VW Financial Services for failing to support customers in financial difficulty.

• UK regulators - Ofwat, Ofgem, HOS, and the FCA, expect businesses to identify vulnerable customers instead of waiting for self-identification

• Case handlers must therefore have time and workflow support to monitor for signs of vulnerability, escalating support as required

A practical guide for handling vulnerable customers in complaints helps teams coordinate vulnerability detection and escalation.

Overcoming email overload: UK complaint teams’ biggest productivity drain

Email bloat is the greatest productivity killer for UK complaint management teams.

Too much time spent in inboxes and answering chaser calls means less time on substantive complaint investigations.

Customers don’t care about workflow, only about outcome and service

The gap between busywork and effective case closure drives cost, escalation, and staff burnout.

Only robust, specialist complaint management software with clear workflow automation will resolve these productivity gaps and break negative complaint handling cycles.

FAQs

What is “work about work” in complaint handling?

Work about work is the lack of coordination in complaint management, chasing approvals, searching for case files, duplicating updates across tools, or attending non-productive meetings. Eliminating this allows complaint teams to accelerate fair outcomes, reduce escalation and the risk of regulatory breaches.

How can complaint teams reduce approval chasing?

Empower case handlers by defining clear ownership, approval stages and specific timelines inside your complaint workflow. If necessary, deliver extra training to increase sign-off mandates. Approvals should be workflow-locked and visible for compliance and audit trail purposes. You can easily set up your own workflows, status flags, and alerts in platforms designed for complaint lifecycle management.

What is a single source of truth for complaint management?

A single source of truth is a unified system that stores every complaint case record, task, message, file, and decision. It’s designed to end fragmentation, boost data quality, and ensure accurate, compliant reporting.

How do fishbone diagrams help in complaint investigations?

Fishbone Diagrams Fishbone Diagrams provide a method for root cause analysis in complaints. They help highlight bottlenecks, enabling teams to remove barriers to resolution and improve customer satisfaction.

Need support with your complaint lifecycle management, workflow review, or compliance audit trail? Connect with our team for a proven coordination strategy to boost outcomes, staff engagement, and regulatory compliance.