Chris Bennett: Don't speed up the complaints process just stop them from happening

Complaints aren't nice. They create unhappy customers, frustrate staff and cost a lot of money to administer and progress to a conclusion. They also do little for the reputation of the profession.

This week's quarterly General Optical Council meeting shed some light on what has been happening to optical complaints, sadly they have been going up. This doesn't just lead to all of the above, it costs all optical professionals money as fees are hiked to pay for the cost of Fitness to Practise procedures.

While FTP cases have grown at the GOC optical practices have also seen the same trend. Calls to the Optical Consumer Complaints Service have also risen as patients and customers become increasingly unhappy with their service, or become increasingly inclined to complain.