Complaints Handler

Complaints Handlers are the people organisations rely on when something has gone wrong for a customer. The core work involves receiving a complaint, gathering the relevant facts, applying the organisation's policies, and reaching a fair outcome. This could mean processing a refund, escalating a matter to a specialist team, or explaining a decision in writing. The role appears across banking, insurance, telecommunications, utilities, government agencies, and retail. It is not purely a customer service role. There is a formal, procedural side to it. Complaints often need to be logged in a case management system, tracked against response timeframes, and documented in case the matter is escalated to an external body such as an ombudsman.

A typical day might start with reviewing the complaints queue and prioritising cases by age or complexity. You would contact customers by phone or email to gather more information, then research the relevant policy or account history. Some complaints are straightforward and can be resolved in a single call. Others require coordination with other departments, such as billing, technical support, or legal. Written responses need to be clear, accurate, and free of jargon. Towards the end of the day, a Complaints Handler might update case notes, flag any systemic issues spotted across multiple complaints, and check that no response deadlines have been missed.

The typical entry point is completion of Year 12 combined with relevant work experience, particularly in customer service or administration (JSA Occupation Profile). A formal qualification is not always required, though a Certificate III or IV in Customer Engagement or Business Administration could strengthen an application. Some employers in financial services may prefer candidates with additional product knowledge. For training options, see yourcareer.gov.au or check eligibility for subsidised courses at dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe.

The emotional weight of this role is real. Complaints Handlers regularly deal with people who are frustrated, distressed, or angry, and the job requires staying calm and professional throughout. There is also a procedural pressure: many industries operate under mandatory response timeframes set by regulators or external dispute resolution schemes, which means the pace can be relentless. Career changers coming from less structured environments sometimes find the documentation requirements demanding at first. The work can also feel repetitive, particularly in high-volume contact centres where the same categories of complaint recur daily. Building resilience and finding ways to stay engaged with the problem-solving aspect of the role tends to be what separates people who stay in the field from those who move on quickly.

In practice, roles tend to cluster in major cities where large financial services, telecommunications, and government organisations are headquartered, though remote and hybrid arrangements have become more common in this occupation.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 5411, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

See full salary breakdown by state

• Active Listeningcore
• Complaint Handlingcore
• Confidentiality and Privacy Compliancecore
• Conflict De-escalationcore
• CRM System Operationcore
• Customer Needs Assessmentcore
• Data Entry and Accuracycore
• Email Managementcore
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligencecore
• Escalation Managementcore
• Inbound Call Handlingcore
• Multitaskingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• SLA and KPI Adherencecore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Written Communicationcore
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Digital Literacy
• Microsoft Office Suite Proficiency
• Report Writing
• Root cause analysis
• Workflow Queue Management

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

Last updated: 10 October 2026