Early warning signs of persistent complainants

Abstract

Using a retrospective case control study of 60 complainants from a Scottish police force and from the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland (PCCS), we aimed to devise a set of early warning signs to allow for the identification of complainants likely to become unusually persistent, and to examine the use of complaint management strategies in these cases. There were significant differences between the unusually persistent complainants and the other groups. There were several key complaint handling strategies that were not used. Early warning signs could potentially identify a group of complainants ‘at risk’ of becoming unusually persistent. Appropriate complaint handling strategies could be implemented both early and later in the complaints process to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome for both complainants and public bodies and lead to significant cost savings across the public sector.

The review of initial complainant conduct: a tool to assist in the early identification of unusually persistent complainants

“…Cases were selected by experienced complaints reviewers at SPSO who were asked to identify the most unusual cases in terms of complexity, duration and use of complaints handling resources. This was consistent with previous studies (Lester, 2004 andSkilling et al 2013). To assist complaints reviewers in the identification of suitable cases we produced guidance (available from authors on request) on the range of features that may be present in such cases.…”

“…We used the 10 items identified by Skilling et al (2013) as early warning signs of querulousness to create the Review of Initial Complainant Conduct (RICC) tool (figure 1). The items included objective counts of the timing and volume of communications by the complainant (items 1-3), as well as items assessing the content of the communications (items 4-10).…”

“…To assist complaints handlers to complete the RICC consistently and accurately we produced accompanying Guidance Notes detailing definitions of the items and the rating process (available from authors on request). Data from a previous study (Skilling et al, 2013) were used to complete sensitivity/specificity analyses of cut-off scores. A cut-off of greater than three out of ten on the RICC was initially specified, which maximised the sensitivity and specificity of the tool.…”

“…Previous research identified a set of "early warning signs" of complainants more likely to become unusually persistent. Further research was recommended to devise a tool to for the early identification of unusually persistent complainants (Skilling et al 2013). Early identification would allow the implementation of specific management strategies to potentially prevent or minimise the harms experienced by complainants, complaints handlers and services as a result of unusual persistence.…”

Consumer vulnerability and complaint handling: Challenges, opportunities and dispute system design

“…Studies have suggested that between 1 and 5% of complainants exhibited unreasonably persistent behaviour (Mullen & Lester, ; New South Wales Ombudsman, ) yet accounted for 15–30% of resources. Guidelines have been published to provide advice for the management of unreasonable complainant behaviour and most of these suggest that the focus needs to be on the conduct of the complainant, rather than on the complainant as a ‘difficult’ person (New South Wales Ombudsman ; Skilling, Øfstegaard, Brodie, & Thomson, ). Complaint handling organizations are increasingly adopting ‘unacceptable action’ policies.…”