This whitepaper highlights the challenges experienced by complaint handlers under increasing pressure to empathically support customers facing ongoing vulnerability and financial hardship; it endorses the integral role of the complaint professional in providing respectful support and reaching  equitable outcomes which gain consumer trust, and build brand reputation; and it identifies the need for upskilling, empowerment and resilience support to enable complaint professionals to continue effectively responding to customers.

The Member Survey findings revealed five key themes on the minds of practitioners in Australia and New Zealand to support them for effective complaint handling and better organisational and customer outcomes.

1. Behaviour of complainants has, and is changing 
2. Complaints teams are providing an essential connection service for consumers 
3. Increasing empowerment for complaint handlers 
4. Staff resilience 
5. A future vision