Complaints Resolution Service

Nockolds Resolution provides contracted services to a number of healthcare regulators and has identified that other regulators, public sector bodies, and indeed small to medium businesses (SME’s), may from time to time benefit from offering and having access to mediation services to proportionately and compassionately resolve escalating complaints.

Nockolds Resolution provides an easy access service for such occasions that is responsive to sensitive time scales, confidential to all parties, and represents excellent value for money when compared to normal legal processes.

This process is available to subscribing organisations and providers, giving access to experienced complaint mediation experts, who can conduct telephone mediation with proven, proportionate and effective resolution rates.

Finding effective ways of resolving consumer complaints and disputes, which support your team, improve consumer satisfaction and also allow an organisation to capture learnings and insight are critically important.

Patients now see themselves as consumers, with high expectations in terms of care, service and value, and we operate in a society of contrasts:

• Consumers who raise complaints in an adversarial and public way, seeking attention and immediate responses;
• Consumers who do not share their feedback and either vote with their spend or take to online reviews.

There are of course the majority in between these extremes.

Organisations invest heavily in attracting consumers and seek customer insight to improve how they operate and their brand reputation. Complaints and dispute initially appear as a drain on resources. They do present an opportunity to gather honest feedback and to convert a complainant to a brand ambassador when handled in the right way.

Internal complaint resolution within the organisation is the important first step. This will be highly effective in addressing and resolving the majority of consumer complaints.

There will always be circumstances where the complaint or dispute escalates. Providing a proportionate and effective pathway for consumers, which improves satisfaction, captures insight and ultimately prevents expensive (time, energy and focus) escalation is vital.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is mandatory in many consumer-business disputes. While it is optional in the healthcare sectors, there are many advantages to the mediation-based approach, that mean it is a highly effective way of resolving complaints in private healthcare.

Nockolds Resolution handle over 6,000 healthcare complaint mediations per year and have used that cross-sector experience to develop an ADR Membership scheme for organisations and sectors.

Nockolds mediation-based schemes are proven to deliver:

• Resolution                          
• Retained control                              
• Insight                  
• Proven customer satisfaction

What is the process?

A highly personalised process, mediation encourages participants to address and resolve conflict through constructive conversations. In practice it follows a procedure like this:

• Appropriate information is submitted by both parties to the mediator. This can be done via an online form, the telephone or email;
• Both parties speak confidentially with the mediator to understand the role of mediation and to decide if this is the right path for them;
• Once all of the relevant information has been collated, the mediator explores the issues and drivers with the parties. This can either be in a ‘shuttle’ approach (individually with each party) or combined when the parties and the mediator have a three party discussion. The mediation will make progress in addressing the issue and focusing on moving forward;
• The mediator then seeks to find an amenable agreement. To do this effectively, they will often propose solutions to parties to sound out their response;
• The resolutions can be as creative and bespoke as the parties’ agree – they are not bound to strict test;
• Once an acceptable solution has been acquired, the mediator will create a binding agreement that can be immediately implemented.

Why Nockolds?

As an approved ADR provider, we are able to deliver bespoke business-to-consumer mediation schemes that provide early mediation where local resolution has not been successful.

Nockolds Resolution can mediate and resolve:

• Care concerns
• Contractual disputes
• Statutory consumer rights
• Payment disputes
• Client relationship issues
• Negligence claims, with the agreement of professional indemnity insurers

Contact Sue Clark on 0345 646 0406 or by email at sclark@nockolds.co.uk to enquire more about our services or to discuss a complaint we may be able to assist you with.