Banks forced to work on customer complaints strategy
Any good salesman will tell you that a customer complaint is a sales opportunity. If this is true, UK banks are missing out on some extra business.
As many as five High Street banks are being forced to work on changes to the way they handle customer complaints after an investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
According to the regulator, two of the five financial institutions are facing further investigation into their customer-facing procedures.
Concerns surrounded a lack of responsibility taken by senior staff for fair handling of complaints, unsatisfactory complaint handling procedures among staff and poor decisions taken around resolving customer issues were all cited as reasons for the extended probe.
Dan Waters, the FSA’s director of conduct risk, said: “A culture of fair complaint handling is an important indicator of whether a firm is committed to treating its customers fairly.
“While we found some good practice, there is clearly evidence of unacceptable standards of complaints handling in banks. Delivering change in this area is a major priority and we are determined to use all the tools available to us to ensure that banks comply with our rules.”
A complaint handling template has been published by the FSA to provide guidance to firms on how to deal with customer concerns.