So RBS and NatWest have been fined £2.8million for mishandling customer complaints. Then why is it so hard for banks to get customer complaints right?
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) publishes very clear rules about how complaints should be handled and these rules are freely available in the public domain. Then why have they not been followed?
There are probably several reasons. Complaints are unexpected and can come into the bank through different channels such as the branch counter, by email, by telephone, via the website, etc. If acknowledgement and satisfaction is not rapidly obtained through one channel, then a second request is understandably made through another causing duplication and confusion.
A first requirement for effective and efficient handling therefore is to have a single, centralised system which captures all complaints no matter what channel or method was used by the customer to transmit them. By consequence this will allow detection of duplicates, an acknowledgement automatically to be sent to the customer with the added possibility of committing to a resolution time and contact person who will assume responsibility for the resolution of the complaint. In addition, a single centralised system will enable root cause analysis of the complaints and so allow rapid action to correct dysfunctional processes.
Another requirement for effective complaint handling is the ability to start timers running when a complaint has been received. The FSA sets timelines for complaint handling and resolution with reward for speedy resolution and penalties for unwarranted delays. These timers, or SLAs as they are commonly called, are of huge value in ensuring that complaints are handled in a timely fashion and can automatically trigger escalations if first level deadlines are not met.
Finally a complaints solution with the ability to manage business rules will be able to perform a triage of complaints against policies defining when a complaint can better be economically resolved and written off immediately rather than follow a long, and therefore expensive resolution process. This can further be augmented to determine the class or segment of customer concerned allowing service levels to be differentiated according to customer value.
Is all this a wishlist? Absolutely not. It is all possible, it all exists and it is running live in a number of banks. Moreover it can be deployed in months and not years and can easily be extended to cover all types of customer enquiries and requests, not just complaints.
James Clark, Principal - EU FS Industry Solutions at Pegasystems
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