CHAPTER 9 | challenges in complaint handling

Client satisfaction survey

The opinion of complainants as to their satisfaction level with the Ombudsman's office is an important element in assessing how successfully the office is discharging its function. It is equally important not to overstate the importance of this measure of office performance. The Ombudsman has defined its role as that of making an impartial and unbiased assessment of complaints, after conducting a professional investigation. An unduly high level of satisfaction from complainants could prompt the question of whether the office had developed an unhealthy bias towards agreeing with and advocating the grievances of complainants. Over time, that would be counterproductive to agencies' receptiveness to the Ombudsman's recommendations.

'Of great interest are the widely differing satisfaction levels of complainants according to the agency involved.'

In May 2004 the office conducted a client satisfaction survey. The last survey was conducted in 2000. It will take some time to analyse the results and decide on a further course of action, but basically the survey results show that we have maintained a high satisfaction rate among complainants (58% of complainants were satisfied with service delivery and 65% were satisfied that Ombudsman staff did as much as they should have when investigating complaints). This is similar to the results of the survey conducted in 2000. Of great interest are the widely differing satisfaction levels of complainants according to the agency involved. For example, for complaints we investigated about Centrelink, 71% of complainants were satisfied. The equivalent statistic for Defence was 50%. We will need to conduct further research before we can draw full meaning from the disparities in the results.

While we can feel reasonably satisfied with the results of the survey, and we are certainly maintaining our performance standards, considerable work is required to fully understand the results. This work is currently underway.