Customer Experience - Qualitative Insights
This research was conducted by the Qualitative Insight Team in Public Health, Wirral Council, following a request to better understand resident and staff experiences of the corporate complaints process. The team explored how customers navigated the journey from initial enquiry to formal response, asking questions about communication, clarity, expectations and the personal impact of delays. Staff were asked about confidence, capacity, process boundaries and communication challenges. The aim was to identify barriers, highlight good practice and generate actionable learning to inform the Customer Experience Strategy and working group, and improve how complaints are handled across services.
Insights gathered: August 2024 - October 2024
Insights gathered by
Qualitative Insight Team, Public Health, Wirral Council
Aim
To understand resident and staff experiences in the corporate complaints process, identify barriers, pain points and opportunities for improvement across the enquiry, submission and response stages. The project sought to generate insights that could inform the Wirral Council Customer Experience Strategy whilst also exploring how communication, responsiveness and policy clarity influence customer satisfaction and outcomes. Ultimately, the work was designed to support the broader goal of delivering efficient, consistent and people‑centred service delivery.
People engaged with
We spoke to seven residents of varied ages, demographic and geographic profiles who submitted corporate complaints and three staff involved in complaints administration and response. Participants covered a broad mix of complaint types, service areas and stages of the process to gain a diverse range of experiences. Recruitment was informed by customer experience data, scoping documents and the Customer Experience working group.
Methods
In‑depth interviews were conducted with seven residents and three staff members in person or online via Microsoft Teams calls. The research design was shaped by scoping discussions, existing customer complaints data, the council's complaints policy, the priorities of service leads and the Customer Experience Strategy group. Interviews explored the full complaints journey including initial enquiries, online submission, communication touchpoints, response quality and timescales. Staff interviews focused on confidence in administering the process, training needs, challenges in closing complaints, capacity pressures and internal communication processes. All insights were thematically analysed. Key findings, participant quotes and recommendations to improve customer experience and organisational practice were submitted to the Customer Experience working groups and head of customer service delivery departments.
Key insights
Insights from residents and council staff highlighted a number of recurring themes across the corporate complaints journey. During initial enquiries, customers consistently emphasised the importance of feeling heard. When informal concerns were ignored or not acknowledged, customers felt that issues often escalated unnecessarily into formal complaints. Slow or absent responses also had tangible personal and financial impacts for some, contributing to frustration and a sense of being overlooked. Many participants felt that an early, reasonable conversation may have prevented formal escalation.
Experiences of the complaint submission stage were mixed. While most residents found the online form simple and straightforward, they felt it lacked clear guidance, examples and reassurance. The automated acknowledgement email was described as overly formal and impersonal, which many felt set an unhelpful tone. Customers also expressed a desire for a copy of their submitted complaint and clearer expectations about who would respond and when.
Response times were a notable pressure point. Although the 15‑day target was broadly viewed as reasonable, participants reported that it was often missed, leading to repeated chasing and additional stress. Communication gaps and inconsistent updates contributed to uncertainty.
The quality and tone of responses varied significantly between response stages. Stage 1 responses were sometimes seen as generic, defensive or insufficiently tailored to the customer’s situation. When multiple service areas were involved, customers perceived a lack of coordination and ownership. In contrast, Stage 2 responses were consistently described as more empathetic, human and thorough. For some, this was the first point at which they felt genuinely acknowledged or received an apology, although staff limitations in resolving issues at this stage were also recognised.
Staff echoed several of these themes. While they generally felt confident and supported in administering the process, they highlighted challenges around capacity, unclear process boundaries i.e. roles and responsibilities and sometimes had access to insufficient information when responding to complaints. They expressed a need for better clarity, suggesting having a single point of contact for all enquiries throughout the stages and some would like additional training to improve their confidence in the role, particularly early on.
Overall, both customers and staff felt that main improvements could stem from for clearer communication, greater consistency across services and more empathetic, human‑centred interactions. Process transparency and early expectation‑setting were identified as key opportunities for improving the overall customer experience.
Quotes
“Look, can we talk this through and resolve this early?”
“There was a stark difference in Stage 2 — it was the first time I felt listened to.”
How have the insights been used/shared?
The insights have been passed to key department leads in customer service delivery for consideration and feedback and have supported in informing training and the decision-making processes of the Customer Experience Strategy working group.