They're not.
The PCC pretend the results:
show a high satisfaction rate among people who used the PCC's services.
The problem is that the PCC don't actually ask the question that most reasonable people would want answered: were you satisfied with the outcome of your complaint?
Instead, the PCC asks about the handling of a complaint, the helpfulness of PCC staff, the time it took to deal with the complaint and whether the complaint had been dealt with thoroughly.
All important, but the crucial question in knowing whether the PCC is functioning properly is to ask whether the members of the public who rely on it to seek corrections to lies, distortions and exaggerations in the print media are satisfied with the outcome of their complaint.
Why would the PCC be so scared of asking that?
Anyway, here's the 'good' 2009 results:
- 80% of complainants said that their complaint had been dealt with thoroughly or very thoroughly;
- 72% of those surveyed considered that the overall handling of their complaint was very satisfactory or satisfactory;
- 79% of people felt that the time it took to deal with their complaint was ‘about right';
- 65% of respondents gave the PCC's staff a helpfulness rating of 8 or more out of 10.
What the PCC neglect to mention in their positive spin today is that, compared to 2008, the results are actually worse on three of those issues, and the same on the fourth:
- 81% of complainants said that their complaint had been dealt with thoroughly or very thoroughly;
- Three quarters (75%) of those surveyed considered that the overall handling of their complaint was very satisfactory or satisfactory;
- 79% of people felt that the time it took to deal with their complaint was ‘about right’;
- 70% of respondents gave the PCC’s staff a helpfulness rating of 8 or more out of 10.
They won't, of course, explain people are less satisfied with their handling of complaints, and won't talk about the 'outcome' question which they refuse to ask.
Because they need to pretend everything in the regulatory garden is rosy and - on the surface - these numbers allow them to do just that.
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Ok, I take your point. But surely only people who's complaints are upheld will give a positive response? Those whose complaints were rejected will naturally say they are unsatisfied with the outcome.
ReplyDeleteWhile I hate to support the PCC, I think in this instance they couldn't ask the question we would have been really interested in.
aerate harsh ladle - Complaints are mostly 'resolved' instead of going to full adjudication (to be upheld or - more often - not). Remember, only a tiny proportion of complaints go to full adjudication.
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote about the Carole Malone 'free cars' complaint, the complainant accepted a resolution but was not happy because he felt he had been pressured into it by the PCC strongly implying that if he didn't accept the resolution, the complaint would be rejected.
The question is - why are the PCC scared of asking the question?
And the other point is that it is entirely misleading for the PCC to talk of 'high satisfaction rates' when they only talk about the handling of a complaint. How many people do you hear who are highly satisfied with the PCC?
I think that because the majority of complaints are not investigated for spurious reasons / technicalities most people would be justified in complaining about the performance of the PCC.
ReplyDeletePresumably these figures exclude the Jan Moir case because despite the fact that 20,000 people complained back in October the case still does not seem to have been resolved.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget, there is one important question we should ask ourselves when they say "80 percent of complainants are ..."
ReplyDelete80 percent of WHICH compainants?
Results of surveys like this are easy to skew in their favour unknowingly as well as knowingly. If they only asked customers whose complaints were upheld, for instance, then of course a high number of them would be satisfied, as their complaint was upheld. A fiver says that this 80 percent represents the 1 or-so percent of all total complaints that are actually upheld.