Consumer Duty - Putting clients at the heart of business

Consumer Duty is one of the most significant shifts in UK financial services. The intention of companies to put the client's needs first is admirable, but evidencing actions can be challenging. Measuring and demonstrating how they are acting to deliver good outcomes for their clients is high on the boardroom agenda for financial services firms. But Consumer Duty is more than a tick-box exercise.

Becoming regulatory compliant is a must. However, keeping clients is critical in a competitive environment. Consumer Duty is your opportunity to build loyalty and drive profitability by exceeding your regulatory obligations.

To put clients at the heart of the business, you need a robust customer experience (CX) strategy and real-time feedback to deliver positive client outcomes. Often firms believe they can assess and improve their CX alone, but an independent third-party assessment is best to achieve an accurate view.

At insight6, we have developed and delivered some of the most advanced CX programmes. Our bespoke feedback tools, trained researchers and CX solutions have earned us a reputation as the partner of choice for many forward-thinking financial services firms.

As well as working with hundreds of clients UK-wide, we are the only company with a network of local CX Directors to support your firm on the ground.

To meet Consumer Duty requirements, financial services firms must measure and demonstrate how they are acting to deliver good outcomes for their clients.

The regulation comprises three key components:

Firstly, an overarching Consumer Duty Principle sets a higher standard of care that the FCA expect companies to adhere to, evidencing their actions to deliver good client outcomes.

Putting the client's needs first is the cornerstone of the Consumer Duty Principle. So, a properly considered and managed customer experience (CX) programme is critical to regulatory success.

Secondly, the FCA has defined three cross-cutting rules that set out the standards of conduct expected across all areas of a firm's retail financial services activities, including:

1.        Act in good faith.

2.        Avoid foreseeable harm.

3.        Enable and support them to pursue their financial objectives.

Finally, four outcomes include rules and guidance across critical elements of the firm-customer relationship.

1.        Products and services

2.        Price and value

3.        Consumer understanding

4.        Consumer support

Companies must consider the client's needs at every stage of the client lifecycle. A robust CX strategy can help you achieve this.

A CX Approach

Becoming Compliant

Our three-step CX process can help you address the requirements of the Consumer Duty across all four outcomes - products and services, price and value, consumer understanding and consumer support.

This guide will show you how partnering with us can help you to demonstrate and evidence your commitment to experience excellence, precisely how to deliver good client outcomes and give you compliance confidence.

CX Step 1

Clients at the Heart

The FCA will review Consumer Duty plans to understand a firm's approach to embedding the Duty within the businesses.

Putting the client at the heart of the business means ensuring every procedure, process, and system keeps the consumer in mind.

Client journey mapping is an expectation of the FCA. At insight6, we have the expertise to provide this hugely valuable tool as firms begin to evidence their client experience.

The FCA emphasises vulnerable clients. Seeing your business through your clients' eyes is critical to regulatory compliance and essential to establishing appropriate processes and communications to support clients with particular needs.

Mapping the client journey enables you to look at multiple consumer touchpoints. From how your teams handle initial enquiries, respond to clients, provide the requested information, or respond to messages to effective complaint management and client referrals.

You can map the client journey internally, but using an independent facilitator will ensure an accurate picture of your business through your client's eyes and provide vital data to evidence your Duty actions.

Companies must consider the client's needs at every stage of the client lifecycle. Mapping their journey is the ideal solution. By investigating and improving the client experience, your firm will be better positioned to build loyalty and drive profitability.

CX Step 2

Client Engagement

The FCA is taking a data-led approach to the governance of Consumer Duty, so firms must be proactive in delivering and evidencing good client outcomes.

The regulatory body will likely want to see client trust, confidence and fair value measured as a bare minimum. Still, the Duty is an opportunity to delve deeper into your client’s experience and achieve better results to build loyalty and profitability.

We think you should embed an effective client engagement programme, but you need data and feedback to do that effectively.

Consistently asking for, reviewing, and acting on feedback will help you understand the customer experience (CX) you provide and evidence of your actions to become compliant.

Plus, positive customer experiences make your clients happy and increase the likelihood they will return, leave a positive online review, or recommend you to others.

At insight6, our bespoke feedback tools, trained researchers and CX solutions have earned us a reputation as the partner of choice for many financial services firms.

insight6 feedback solutions:

✓        Conducting CX reviews, aka mystery shopping.

✓        Regularly using our bespoke instant insight online feedback tool to gather insights and produce net promoter score (NPS) based surveys.

✓        Facilitating focus and listening groups for clients and your team.

CX Step 3

Client-centric culture

Your staff are critical in your firm achieving regulatory compliance, so creating a client-centric culture is imperative to enable you to deliver a higher standard of care.

Your employees play a pivotal role in delivering your product or service.

However, the working environment is constantly changing, and the new Duty will likely bring new challenges for your team. It's essential to know the impact it's having on your staff.

To create a client-centric culture, you should evaluate how you train, develop, mentor, and coach your team to give them the skills and competencies to do their job.

Measuring employee engagement and giving the proper support will be critical to ensure your firm and staff meet Consumer Duty requirements.

Creating a great working culture within your business ensures that your team can give the best experience to your clients. You need access to fast, actionable feedback from your team that makes them feel highly motivated, engaged and respected.

Managing and implementing feedback is a crucial part of the process. The entire process must be carefully considered, ensuring that goals are set from the outset and that a skilled team manages reviews and feedback.

As the only CX specialist consultancy in the UK with local experts on the ground, the team at insight6 will help design and deliver a bespoke training programme to meet the needs of your business and staff whilst helping to evidence Duty actions.

WHO IS AT THE HEART OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Feedback is essential to achieving a higher standard of care.

Consumer Duty is your opportunity to build loyalty and drive profitability by exceeding your regulatory obligations. To put clients at the heart of the business, you need real-time feedback to deliver positive client outcomes.

Our instant insight tool will:

✓        Allow you to collect client feedback.

✓        Analyse/report on real-time feedback.

✓        Obtain actionable comments.

✓        Improve your products and services.

✓        Benchmark against your competitors.

✓        Evidence of Consumer Duty actions

Four outcomes - Products and Services

The product and services outcome rule seeks to ensure providers deliver their products and services with reasonable care and that they are fit for purpose.

How you show that you know your client is essential to ensure the product and services you provide meet their particular requirements, delivering them in a way that meets their expectations.

CX solution: client journey mapping

✓        Understand what happens in reality for your clients - their perspective.

✓        Identify opportunities to improve on efficiency and importantly, deliver great consumer outcomes.

✓        Evidence actions and make improvements to your business.

Consistently asking for, reviewing, and acting on feedback will help you understand the customer experience (CX) you provide and evidence of your actions to become compliant.

CX solution: instant insight feedback tool

✓        Collect client feedback.

✓        Analyse/report on feedback.

✓        Obtain actionable comments.

✓        Improve products and services.

✓        Benchmark against competitors.

✓        Evidence Consumer Duty actions.

Four outcomes - Price and Value

The price and value outcome rule seeks to ensure that consumers receive products and services that represent good value for money.

Service providers must ensure that the price for their products and services is fair and reasonable. The principle encourages transparency on pricing and clarity about the level of service the client can expect.

Key to this outcome is evidence that clients feel they are getting value for money. The best way to evidence what clients think is to ask them for regular and consistent feedback.

instant insight is insight6's total feedback solution, enabling you to gather real-time feedback from your clients and team.

The more feedback you receive, the more confident you will make significant decisions, enabling you to improve the customer experience and evidence your Duty actions.

CX solution: instant insight feedback tool

✓        Collect client feedback.

✓        Analyse/report on feedback.

✓        Obtain actionable comments.

✓        Improve products and services.

✓        Benchmark against competitors.

✓        Evidence Consumer Duty actions.

Four outcomes - Consumer Understanding

The consumer understanding outcome rule means consumers must be given the information they need at the right time and in a way they can clearly understand.

The FCA will look for evidence that service providers give key features, terms and conditions, and any potential risks or limitations presented clearly and accurately. Consumers must be given this information before purchasing or entering a contract.

Additionally, consumers must be aware of their rights and how to exercise them, including the available channels for making complaints or seeking redress if the service provided does not meet the expected standards.

The first step to showing clients understand the communications you send is to show that they are receiving and reading them.

Mapping the client journey lets you look at multiple consumer touchpoints, helping you to review processes and systems and improve client communications. Plus, asking for regular and consistent feedback using a real-time solution like our instant insight tool will help you to understand your business through the eyes of your clients and evidence the steps you take to ensure good client outcomes.

Four outcomes - Consumer Support

The consumer support outcome rule aims to ensure providers give excellent support, allowing clients to realise the benefits of their products and services to meet their financial objectives.

The FCA emphasises vulnerable clients, so looking at your business through all clients' eyes is essential to regulatory compliance.

Companies must ensure that they act in good faith to avoid causing foreseeable harm and help their clients achieve their financial objectives. Consequently, knowing how your customers or clients feel about your company, the products or services you provide, and the experience they receive is essential to build loyalty and driving profitability.

Customer Experience (CX) Reviews, aka Mystery Shopping, enable you to collect valuable information about a service delivered. When conducting a review, a mystery shopper or researcher will record their experience while pretending to be a customer or client during interactions with your staff or online.

Getting an independent assessment of the ‘real experience’ is critical to understand what you are getting right and finding areas for improvement.

You can use these reviews to evaluate the quality of your service or the robustness of your processes and even obtain a benchmark against your competitors.

CX SOLUTIONS

Six ways we can help

Customer Experience (CX) Reviews

Our highly trained researchers will perform CX Reviews (aka Mystery Shopping) to assess and report on what you are getting right and find areas for improvement.

Customer journey mapping

Mapping your client's journey is a crucial step. Journey mapping visually represents the different client touch points when interacting with your business, providing you with a roadmap to CX success and to becoming regulatory compliant.

Focus and listening groups

By facilitating client or employee group sessions, your local CX Director will help you learn how they feel about your business, offering the feedback you need to improve processes, systems and communication.

CX training and development

Using the output from the CX reviews and our sector experience, your local CX Director will deliver inspiring and motivational workshops to support your team and the firm with its Duty requirements and CX transformation.

Online customer feedback

Our online survey tool, instant insight, will iregularly dentify and measure how your existing customers and team members feel during their journey. Plus, you can use the tool to boost positive online reviews.

Mentoring and coaching

Changing behaviours is critical to improving CX and regulatory compliance. We will work with team members to bring them on the journey, developing skills and behaviour.

Our dedicated team of CX Directors have a wealth of financial services experience and an understanding of CX, which is second to none, giving you a local partner committed to transforming the CX of your company.

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