Our complaint resolution process

2012 results

We resolved 87% of complaints within five business days. Our target of 90% was achieved in August and September and continues to be achieved into the new financial year including the months of October, November and December.

We continue to focus on improving our internal systems in order to provide customers with efficient and effective problem resolution. This year initiatives included:

• Empowerment of complaints staff to resolve complaints requiring a payment to the customer more quickly
• Improved quality measurement to improve customer outcomes
• Improved analysis of what is driving complaints to ensure continuous improvement of our products and services to meet and exceed customer expectations.

2011 results

This year our customer complaint resolution performance was up 6%, with 82% of complaints resolved within five business days.  Despite this positive improvement, we still aspire to meet our target of 90% by simplifying our processes and reducing the drivers of complaints.

During the year we introduced a system to record complaints resolved by all customer facing teams in addition to our dedicated Complaints team.  From March, these additional complaints are included in our complaint resolution measure.  This change will help us to better monitor, respond to, and improve our customers’ banking experience at all contact points.

The number of complaints to our dedicated Complaints team increased from 67,714 to 77,741 in 2011 which is reflective of the industry trend and increased consumer awareness.

We continue to focus on improving our internal systems in order to provide customers with efficient and effective problem resolution. This year initiatives included:

• Empowerment of complaints staff to resolve complaints requiring a payment to the customer more quickly
• Improved quality measurement to improve customer outcomes
• Improved recruitment and training to hire and develop complaints professionals
• Improved analysis of what is driving complaints to ensure continuous improvement of our products and services to meet and exceed customer expectations.

The future

We are currently improving our customer satisfaction surveys to make it easier for customers to provide us with feedback about the resolution of their complaint so we can deliver an even better service.

Most importantly, we have a shared program of work underway across the organisation to drive insights from customer complaints and take action to significantly reduce the drivers of complaints and improve the customer experience.

2010 results

In 2010, customer complaints to our Australian Customer Response Centre increased to 67,714 from 56,069 in 2009. The increase is in line with an industry-wide rise in complaints and reflects increasing consumer awareness of complaints processes and improved access to complaints mechanisms, including our online processes. We have seen an increase in 'interest-rate' complaints, and an increase in complaint volumes relating to 'exception fees' as a result of the recent class action against ANZ. We have also seen an increase in mortgage complaints commensurate with an increase in mortgage volumes.

We continue to focus on improving our internal systems in order to provide customers with an efficient and effective response to complaints. This year initiatives included:

• increasing the number of staff resolving complaints by 40%
• empowering our staff with training and discretions to be able to resolve complaints at first contact
• improving feedback to business units to address causes of complaints.
  As a demonstration of our ongoing commitment to provide customers with a timely response, we set a target to resolve 90% of retail customer complaints within five business days. In 2010, 76% of complaints were resolved within five business days. We are on track to achieve our target in 2011.

The future

We will continue to monitor and measure customer satisfaction with our complaints processes through monthly customer surveys.

2009 results

In 2009, the number of customer complaints to our Australian Customer Response Centre (CRC) increased to 56,069 from 41,490 last year.

This increase reflects the deteriorating economic climate over the year and is consistent with trends across numerous industries.

This year we have focussed on increasing customer satisfaction with the complaints resolution process by ensuring a consistent process for customers regardless of which channel they use as well as ensuring staff have the right skills to respond appropriately to complaints.

Key initiatives have included:

• the consolidation of previously independent complaint teams
• clarifying for our branches and call centre how and when to escalate a customer concern or complaint
• making it easier for our customers to lodge a complaint online by providing a link on the homepage of anz.com
• contacting customers more frequently to update them on the progress of their complaint and spend more time at the conclusion of cases to ensure customers understand the outcome and their options to take the matter further if required 
• introducing monthly surveys of customers who have had a complaint resolved by ANZ to track their satisfaction with our approach
• providing relevant business units with 'dashboard' analysis of the top causes of customer complaints in their business and priority customer issues for resolution.

Despite the material increase in complaint volumes, complaints continued to be resolved in a timely manner; 91.7% of complaints were resolved within five days (against a public target of 90%).

The future

We will continue to monitor and measure customer satisfaction with our complaints processes through monthly customer surveys.

2008 results

In 2008, the number of customer complaints to our Customer Response Centre (CRC) increased to 41,490 from 36,889 last year*.

This increase was partly due to the current market volatility and an increase in the number of customers requesting financial hardship assistance. This year we continued to focus on the complaints resolution process, investing in both the CRC team capabilities and also in problem avoidance projects (e.g. reviewing and streamlining our processes for assisting customers who are experiencing payment difficulties).

We have increased the number of staff available to resolve complaints, developed a new training and monitoring process to further improve our customer service levels, and enhanced team processes to enable swifter resolution of complaints. We have also undertaken market research and mystery shopping programs to provide ongoing feedback by which to identify any development opportunities to further improve our complaints resolution service.

We continue to meet our targets for resolving complaints in a timely manner. We resolved 83 per cent of complaints in 48 hours (against a target of 80 per cent) and 91 per cent within five days (against a target of 90 per cent).

The future

Our 2009 Corporate Responsibility Goals include a commitment to resolving 90 per cent of retail customer complaints within five working days and improving customer satisfaction with our complaint resolution processes. Progress against this commitment will be reported in our interim and full year Corporate Responsibility Reports.

*2007 statistics have been restated based on the adoption of a new reporting database and a revised qualifying criterion.