How to Turn Complaints Into a Strategic Advantage

Complaints are often viewed as a burden, an unavoidable part of customer service that teams simply need to process and move on from.

But what if complaints were actually one of the most valuable insights a business could have?

To find out more, we spoke to complaint specialist Stephen Miller, to find out what contact centres can do to transform complaints from isolated incidents into powerful catalysts for improvement.

Video: Exploring Techniques for Root Cause Analysis

Watch the video below to hear Stephen explore techniques for root cause analysis:

With thanks to Stephen Miller, Complaints Specialist, for contributing to this video.

This video was originally published in our article ‘Use Customer Complaints to Your Advantage’

★★★★★

The Typical Complaint Journey

Stephen explained that complaints generally begin when a customer experiences a poor product or service interaction:

“In terms of the complaint journey specifically, so what typically happens is that customers have had a poor experience, whether it’s a product or a service that they’ve received.

They register a complaint that normally comes through the first-line service levels. If it’s not resolved in the first-line service levels, it typically goes to an escalated complaints team, or it should go to an escalated complaints team.

Normally what happens then is that there’s an initial contact to obviously understand the reason for the complaint, what the facts are of the matter, what the facts are of the complaint, and obviously it’s the admission of whoever has ownership of that particular complaint to try and resolve it.

That’s it typically from start to finish. So ideally it should be the case – complaint comes in, someone picks it up and should see it through from start to finish. That should be the case.”

In most organizations, complaint handling follows a familiar path:

A customer experiences a poor product or service interaction and submits a complaint.
The complaint is reviewed by the frontline team, who attempt to resolve it.
If unresolved, it is escalated to a specialist complaints team.
A complaints handler contacts the customer to gather facts, clarify expectations, and work toward a resolution.
Ideally, a single owner manages the case from start to finish to maintain consistency and accountability.

While this process works for resolving individual issues, it often stops short of uncovering the root causes behind recurring complaints. As a result, contact centres risk repeatedly fixing symptoms rather than addressing underlying problems.

The Power of Root Cause Analysis

Without structured root cause analysis (RCA), teams can find themselves resolving the same issues again and again.

“Things like root cause analysis – I guess without that, essentially what you’re doing is that you’re just sort of fixing the same problem over and over, you’re not actually getting to the bare bones of the issue to try and resolve what fundamentally is causing that problem.”

RCA helps organizations go beyond surface-level explanations and identify what is truly driving a complaint.

Two widely recognized methods include:

1. The 5 Whys Technique

This approach involves repeatedly asking “why?” until the underlying cause of a problem becomes clear, as Stephen continued:

“The 5 Whys; what that entails is just typically – and again it’s more simple than it seems – is just literally asking why multiple times to sort of understand the full depth of ultimately why this complaint is happening.

So why did this happen? Why does it keep happening? Why does it happen to the same group of customers? Things like that.”

For example:

Why did the issue occur?
Why does it continue to affect customers?
Why is it more common in specific scenarios or customer groups?

Each question removes another layer of ambiguity, revealing deeper process or policy gaps that need to be addressed.

2. The Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram

The second method is the Fishbone (or Ishikawa) Diagram, as Stephen explains:

“The fishbone diagram; so that’s a technique that that I’ve utilized as well. And again, it’s literally more simple than it sounds.

It’s literally if you just imagine the skeleton of a fish, you’ve got the head, you’ve got the spine, you’ve got bones, and then you’ve got the smaller bones.

The way that looks is; so if you look at the head – the problem or the effect that you’re trying to solve, the spine, which is sort of like the main line sort of leading to the head, so where does that go to?

The bones are the categories of the potential causes which are branching up then off the spine, and then the smaller bones sort of like the sub-causes or the contributing factors as well.

So, it’s just making sure that you’re doing the full investigation, not just looking at it at a service level, but making sure that you’re really kind of getting into the full, you know, the full cause, or the full cause of that complaint, the full cause of the issue.”

This visual tool breaks down a problem by mapping out potential causes.

Head: The issue or effect being investigated.
Spine: The path leading to the issue.
Large bones: Key categories such as processes, people, systems, communication, or policies.
Small bones: Detailed contributing factors within each category.

This method ensures a full examination of the problem, preventing teams from jumping to conclusions or applying temporary fixes.

As Stephen puts it, a temporary cover-up doesn’t address the real problem and is like “putting plasters on broken legs – it’s not going to fix the broken leg.”

Looking Beyond Individual Complaints

A single complaint presents one perspective, but when viewed collectively, complaints reveal patterns that point to systemic issues.

Analysing clusters of related complaints allows teams to:

Identify recurring failure points.
Understand the customer experience more deeply.
Prioritize improvements that will prevent future dissatisfaction.
Support decisions with evidence rather than assumptions.

Structured analysis transforms complaints from isolated incidents into a source of continuous improvement.

Closing the Feedback Loop

Insights gained through RCA only create value when they are shared and acted upon, as Stephen explained:

“It’s all part of a feedback loop and it depends how driven the company is to make sure that they are fully efficient in regard to the complaint resolution process.

Because a lot of companies or a lot of call centres, the best way to treat a complaint is to treat it as a gift, complete it – treat it as an opportunity.”

Effective feedback loops involve:

Communicating findings to relevant departments across the organization.
Updating processes, systems, training, or customer communications.
Monitoring whether complaint volumes decrease after changes are implemented.
Using complaint data to strengthen customer journeys end-to-end.

Organizations that view complaints as opportunities and invest in solving their root causes demonstrate higher efficiency and a more customer-centric culture.

A True Indicator of Organizational Strength

Financial performance may show how a company performs when things go well, but complaint handling shows how it behaves when things go wrong, as Stephen concludes:

“It’s all good and well for companies to say they’ve reached record profits, record sales, and things like that. The true marker of how good a company is actually how they respond to the complaints, how they respond to how things go wrong.”

Contact centres that respond proactively, transparently, and systematically to complaints build trust, reduce repeat issues, and deliver more resilient customer experiences.

Turning complaints into strategic insights is ultimately not just about fixing problems, it’s about learning from them.

If you are looking for more great insights from the experts, check out these next:

Author: Robyn Coppell

Published On: 12th Dec 2025 - Last modified: 18th Dec 2025
Read more about - Video, Complaints, Customer Experience (CX), Customer Feedback, Customer Service, Service Strategy, Stephen Miller, Videos