Conversation Analysis and Improvement

The objective of the improve customer experience project is to improve the experience of people providing feedback to the CQC about their experiences of health and social care services, and also tin increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the ways in which the CQC uses this insight to achieve its regulatory purpose. The CQC wants to improve the customer experience of people providing feedback about the care they have experience or witnessed in order to:

1. Encourage more people to give the CQC good quality feedback – they are the CQC’s eyes and ears in the community;

2. Reduce the complaints the CQC receives that are caused by people feeling the CQC has not treated them well when they have provided feedback about services

The CQC has identified some barriers to delivering a positive customer experience. These include:

1. The language the CQC uses, both internally and externally, to explain why it wants to hear from people, and what we will do with the information they give us. The “conversations” that take place (on the telephone, online and in writing) between employees within CQC and between the CQC and people outside the organisation, often raise expectations about what CQC is empowered to do in relation to investigating and resolving individual people’s personal experiences. The confusion around the language used means that people outside the organisation are getting frustrated with the way their feedback is handled by the CQC, and people inside the CQC are unclear about what they can, and cannot, say and do to support the people who contact the CQC.

2. The way the CQC’s internal processes have developed over time in response to changing external expectations and regulatory developments. This means that CQC systems and processes have not always been designed with the “customer” at the centre, and often reflect our internal organisational structures rather than the needs and expectations of people who contact CQC to give feedback about their, or others, experience.