What really goes on in the world of complaints

“It’s not the job that’s hard. It’s the system you’re doing it in!”

Written by someone who’s lived it (not just sat in the meeting about it), it’s for anyone who’s ever said, “Let’s just try to get through the day.”

If you’ve ever tried to log a case, chase a repairer, and write an email mid-call, all before 11 am, you’ll feel right at home here.

It starts with a coffee that’s gone cold; a call that’s missed. It ends with a spreadsheet that’s crashed, yet again!

Somewhere in between, you’ve juggled three deadlines, two “urgent” escalations, and one meeting that could’ve been easily summarised using a couple of sentences in an email.

If you know, you know.

This blog isn’t a motivational pep talk or a five-point plan to stay Zen while the inbox burns. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at what a day in complaints actually feels like; the backlogs, the distractions, the “I know that you’re busy but can you just” tasks that keep piling up, all before lunch!

We didn’t build Complyr on a whim. We built it because we lived with the chaos of complaints and knew it wasn’t sustainable.

So, if you’ve ever logged a complaint or dissatisfaction about the complaints process, this one’s for you.

The reality of case handling

Somewhere between call number 15 and your list of 20+ overdue case tasks, the waves come crashing down. You’re not managing complaints, you’re always swimming against a current. And today you're sinking fast.

Your team’s solid. You’ve got each other’s backs. But let’s be honest, you’re all clinging to life rafts, trying to survive the day.

Here’s what survival mode looks like:

• A system so slow, you’ve memorised the exact spin of the loading doughnut.

• Inboxes that don’t speak to each other, so key documents are scattered like breadcrumbs across folders.

• You start drafting a customer email, only to be interrupted by another call, then realise you’ve got five drafts open and no idea which belongs to which case.

• The chasing isn’t just from customers, repairers want authorisation, payment queries are piling up (and that’s not even your department).

• You can’t access the Excel tracker, so you’re scribbling on post-it notes again. Everything ends up double- or triple-handled.

• A customer raises an issue you’ve never even heard of. You try to ask someone, but they’re all on calls too.

• You must advise a customer that they can escalate the case to FOS, knowing full well they probably will, because you didn’t have time to investigate it properly.

• And just when you think you’re catching up, a manager pings you on Teams for an “urgent update”, mid-call, mid-chaos, and your notes vanish into thin air.

Every Monday starts with hope; this week will be better.

But you never have the time, the tools, or the breathing space to actually deliver the good service you know you’re capable of.

And the solutions offered?

• More manual workarounds.

• Another meeting to ask why complaints are taking too long to close, and can you do overtime to help clear the endless backlog?

• A couple of tubs of chocolates with all the good ones taken whilst you’ve been on the phone.

• A motivational quote on the back wall telling you to “be the change you want to see”

They mean well. But it's not what’s needed.

The system is slow. The workarounds are brittle. The tools are outdated. And the burnout is real. What's needed is a lifeboat to keep the team afloat.

Where it all breaks down

Most people outside the team only ever see one of three things:

📊 The dashboard

🗣 The headline numbers in the weekly meeting

💬 Or the bad review that’s just landed on a review platform

What they don’t see is:

• The reason why the numbers keep creeping up.

• How utterly draining it is trying to deliver a good service with broken tools.

When things get really bad, phones get diverted to another team “just to give you a bit of breathing space.” You make progress and feel better. But when the phone lines are handed back, they come with an overwhelming number of emails requesting updates or callbacks to customers. The sense of relief is short-lived and you're back to square one.

A better way - no sticky notes required!

It’s not you. It’s the system.

When you have the right software to strip away duplication, makeshift fixes, and the digital clutter, complaint handling gets much easier. It becomes what it should’ve been all along: structured, collaborative, and satisfying.

We built Complyr because we know complaint handling is complex work. But it can be made easier.

• We’ve felt the frustration of just trying to close a case.

• We’ve been the lender being chased.

• We’ve also been the ones stuck waiting for a lender update that takes weeks rather than hours or days.

• We've felt the pressure of working long hours trying to clear a never ending backlog.

• We've been the ones who were too busy to actually deliver the good service we know we can.

• And yes, we’ve also been the person rereading a Slack thread at 5:25 pm trying to figure out what’s actually going on.

That’s why we built something different.

Not just another system that looks sleek but disrupts your workflow.

Not a platform that takes weeks of training, numerous calls to your account manager, and still leaves you improvising.

Just something that actually fits the way complaints work, and the way your team works.

🚫 No more missed communications.

🚫 No more sticky notes acting as your workflow.

🚫 No more fighting the same fires every day.

Just the breathing room to do the job well, before complaints escalate and the team burns out. And before “good service” becomes something we only talk about in training slides.

Closing thoughts

You shouldn’t have to dread every day like it’s a new test of endurance. Or walk into work with the team mantra: “Let’s just get through the day.”

Good complaint handling shouldn’t rely on memory, multitasking, or miracles. It should come from systems that actually support the work, not slow it down.

Imagine a day when you can drink your coffee while it’s still hot. Pick a chocolate you actually like before only the coffee creams are left. Even join in the office sweepstake without worrying that something’s slipping through the cracks.

That’s the point. Not perfection, just space to do your job well, without burning out in the process.