The quality of your complaint handling processes and Complaints Data are key metrics for the FCA as they are important indicators of whether regulated firms are really treating customers fairly by dealing with customer disappointment both professionally and promptly. With continued regulatory consideration of how complaints data gives insight to a firm’s commitment to treating customers fairly, firms and especially senior managers, should be looking at what they are doing to understand potentially negative outcomes for clients and to mitigate those. Complaints Handling data is one of the tools the regulator can use to compare a firm across its peers – if you’re getting higher numbers of genuine complaints or FOS (Financial Ombudsmen Service) referrals, you can at some point expect some regulatory scrutiny of your processes.
Although complaint handling regulations haven’t changed significantly in recent years, there is an increased focus as a result of the cross-cutting rules in the Consumer Duty. In order to achieve effective complaint handling we look at the “what” we need to do and “how” we deliver against that. The FCA complaints handling training course is designed to be enjoyable as well as instructional with delegate participation actively encouraged. Practical examples are used to illustrate the learning points rather than leaving them as theoretical.