Creating a Culture that Learns from Complaints
Complaints can be a powerful source of learning in the social housing sector, especially when organisations have the space to look at what sits beneath them.
This hub brings together our three-part article series, exploring why complaints continue to challenge the sector, what good listening really involves, and how leaders and teams can use insight to make improvements that matter.
Alongside the articles, you’ll find four practical takeaway resources, covering how to create the conditions for learning, apply tools and techniques, embed learning into culture, and use a simple closure log to support consistent reflection and action.
Are We Learning or Just Reacting?
This opening article looks at how rising complaint volumes have pushed many providers into reactive mode, and why psychological safety and leadership curiosity are key to understanding what complaints are really telling us.
Are We Really Listening?
This article explores why responding isn’t the same as listening, and how the emotional meaning behind complaints can be lost when the focus is on closing cases rather than understanding residents’ experiences.
Acting on What We Hear
The final article looks at the gap between insight and action, and describes three approaches used by organisations that turn what they hear from complaints into meaningful and visible change.
Practical Tools and Takeaway Guides
Creating the Conditions for Learning from Complaints
A guide for boards and senior leaders on building psychological safety, encouraging curiosity, and creating the space teams need to understand what sits beneath complaints, not just meet deadlines.
Embedding Learning into People, Culture & Collaboration
A guide focused on culture, reflective practice, and team learning. It explores how organisations can build the habits and conversations that help turn complaints into ongoing improvement.
Tools & Techniques for Learning from Complaints
A practical resource for managers and operational teams, offering approaches for capturing insight, tracking themes, involving residents, and using data in ways that lead to visible and meaningful action.
Complaint Closure Checklist
A simple tool designed to strengthen learning at the point of case closure. It prompts teams to document insight, consider wider themes, share learning with the right people, and show residents what has changed as a result.
At think together, we help organisations strengthen their approach to complaints, from understanding root causes to supporting teams to make changes that improve customer experience and reduce repeat issues. That wider work is at the heart of what we do.
This series was created in partnership with David Whelpton, who can provide support with complaint communication and response writing if you need something more specific.
If you’d like to talk about how this could support your work, or share your experience, we’d love to hear from you.
For organisational culture, complaints learning, and service improvement support.
For help with complaint communication and response writing.