Much has been said about the pending FCA requirements. Delving through the various papers and consultation documents there is no doubt that the obligations will require a substantial change in the culture and behaviour of regulated firms, especially in the way they interact with customers within all regulated contact centre operations.
Three of the four outcome requirements in the FCA “non handbook guidance” and “cross cutting” rules will affect contact centre operations and the oversight of them. Within contact centres, especially at an individual level, firms will need to comply with the requirement to ensure clear customer communications, match products to customer needs and deliver effective customer service. We have already heard the push back from firms, like “we do that already.” The response and challenge from regulators is, “how do firms really know that they are meeting their obligations and how do they prove they are compliant?”
While FCA rules flex to consider ‘proportionality’ in measuring any potential harm, ‘Consumer Duty’ requirements will challenge firms to justify their compliance against the measures. Firms will no longer be able to rely on metrics such as net promoter scores to confirm customer satisfaction. One size is not going to fit all; current contact centre monitoring where x% of calls are audited irrespective of the product type or potential harm to the consumer won’t work any longer. We have talked in previous blogs about the typical percentage of calls being audited as woefully small. Oversight at a more individual level plus new measures and new metrics will be required. Boards of firms must establish effective governance and control frameworks to ensure businesses are compliant with approved risk appetite parameters.
There is no doubt that ‘Customer Duty’ requirements will result in increased monitoring. This is where Yabber comes in. We can help firms improve compliance and reduce costs while monitoring 100% of call centre interactions; including arrears and collection calls where we have a significant history of reviews and interventions. To learn more, see how independent oversight can help you, arrange a demo of the system or simply have a chat, give us a call to find out how we can help.