Customer Complaint - What to expect?

[Whattoexpect23]

I work for an organisation and I hold a license to give specific advice/solutions.

I had another colleague help me on a case (not licensed), admin input. He made quite a big mistake that caused detriment to the client. A complaint was raised and is likely to go to FCA.

Does anyone have experience of this, will it be me who is in trouble as the license holder in my name.

Im sick with worry, my colleague isn’t bothered and is stating he wasn’t trained!

I don’t even know the wording of the complaint.

Anyone at all, im really anxious.

Difficult to say without more detail.

IME in most firms a genuine mistake wouldn’t be too much of an issue, unless it stems from someone being reckless / careless / part of a wider pattern.

Have you spoken to your line manager and / or whoever handles complaints?

The mistake came from being careless, then trying to cover what happened.

I spoke to my Manager but im not getting any info, I don’t want to be the scapegoat.

Do you have indemnity such as public liability insurance? Anyone who advises or guides clients should. I'm a civil servant who advises clients and we have very clear guidelines around advice.

I would suggest documenting exactly what happened, in a detailed timeline, with any supporting evidence - emails, meetings from your calendar etc. Give this to your manager.

Regarding your colleague, making a mistake and being untrained is one thing; trying to cover it up is dysfunctional behaviour - you need to be clear about the impact the attempted cover-up has had. The fact he isn't bothered is a worrying attitude even just for the mistake part.

Does anyone have experience of this, will it be me who is in trouble as the license holder in my name.

Should/could you have spotted the error when checking what the unlicensed colleague had done?

Depends on the workplace, who is responsible for what and exactly what happened. Where I work is pretty understanding of genuine mistakes. I would be far more concerned that you tried to cover it up.

Does this colleague reports to you or is a lowe grade?

Is it a GDPR issue?

It was admin, not advice that he did. The mistake was a data protection breach, it went unnoticed due to a cover up of dates. I spotted it by coincidence and realised the dates didn’t add up.

Same as me but not licensed, he reports to our Manager.

It was a data protection breach.

I thought it might be a data breach. The member of staff is not under you so that's good. The question is whether he was helping you found something that is his role and duty and that he's been trained to do or just helping you outside of his role.

To be honest, there is a good probability that you'll be held responsible as the manager of that case but I wouldn't panic.

Unless it's a breach that caused very serious exposure on a scale of many people affected badly, the ICO is not going to be too concerned and will just expect to see how the breach was dealt with. If the ICO is not overly concerned, it's likely that your company will take no further steps than a warning. If you think of all the serious breaches that have taken place with NHS consultants and government bodies losing files on trains etc...

Of course, this is all stipulation not knowing the details and impact of the breach.

For your own benefit, write an account of what happened:

In my position as licensed advisor, I provided the following input to the communication. I am trained and approved to provide this information. There was no issue with the information I provided.

It is common practice for colleagues to work together on cases, each providing input and being responsible for their own input.

Colleague X provided input on the date and details of yyyy in line with their role as described in their job description. X has been doing this role for Z time and has provided this information to many other cases. X is responsible for the correctness of the information that they provide.

In is common practice in our department to assist on cases in this manner and each member is responsible for the accuracy of the information they contribute. (have a few examples to hand if you need them).

(if this is not the case, ie that you have overall responsibility for the information that was sent out... you might need to give more information including what was sent, why it was missed and what impact it had on the client).

Describe how the error was discovered, what actions were taken, what the impact was on the client and how your organisation has sought to rectify the issue.

Describe also what suggestions you have to prevent this in the future:
More training, corrections process, checking process to include dates as well as contents of the advice, changes to the review procedure on external communication.

Do you think I have the right to ask to see the complaint? It has never been suggested that it is aimed at anyone in particular, just the event.

Both my colleague had to give input to the overall Manager as to the event. But we don’t know the details of the complaint nor the outcome from the internal investigation.

Not at this stage. The first thing the company will be doing is investigating what happened. Then they will decide what action to take which may or may not involve disciplinary action.