The definition of a complaint

This issue has caused some difficulties in the past because of inconsistent practice between suppliers, which makes monitoring of performance difficult, if not impossible. Also suppliers may adopt a definition of a complaint which is not consistent with consumer expectations. There is, however, substantial agreement on how to define a complaint. The British Standards Institute defines a complaint as an: expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, related to its products, or the complaint-handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected 1 The Financial Services Authority defines a complaint as: any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of, a person about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service or a redress determination 2 Ofcom defines a complaint as: a. an expression of dissatisfaction made by a customer to a Communications Provider related to either: - the Communications Providers provision of Public Electronic Communications Services to that customer; or - the complaint-handling process itself; and b. where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected 3 In energy the complaint handling standards regulations, define a complaint as: any expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, related to any one or more of its products, its services or the manner in which it has dealt with any such expression of dissatisfaction, where a response is either provided by or on behalf of that organisation at the point at which contact is made or a response is explicitly or implicitly required or expected to be provided thereafter

The similarities between these definitions are obvious. Given that the definitions above run across industries, there is no reason that such a definition could not be applied in other industries.

1 2

BSI ISO 10002: 2004 at 3.2. FSA Handbook, Glossary Definition 3 Ofcom Approved Code of Practice for Complaint Handling.