As the move towards the electrification of road transport accelerates, so too does the rapid development of the nationwide EV charging infrastructure. However, unlike most newly developing business sectors, the world of electric vehicle charging is taking shape under a significant amount of regulatory guidance and expectation. This doesn’t just extend to planning concerns about the physical appearance and location of chargers, but also how they work and the experience of their customers.

The regulations in place are designed to ensure a whole series of goals including: 99% charge point reliability; physical accessibility and inclusiveness for users; ease of contactless payments; pricing transparency; and the growth of payment roaming providers, which offer the ability to access multiple competing networks from a single app.

“Ultimately, charging your EV should be easier, cheaper and more convenient than refueling a petrol or diesel car, wherever you live” Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

What about customer service?

The Public Charge Point regulations also provide very specific and demanding expectations about how the network operators provide contact centre customer service support. Charge Point Operators (CPOs) are legally required to provide a Helpline service accessible from a freephone number. The helpline must be staffed (presumably by real people, not hallucinatory bots) 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Starting this summer, CPOs will need to provide monthly reports of their customer service helpline performance, both to their regulating department in government, the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), and the Secretary of State at the Business department.

The reports are detailed, too. They will cover:

*regulators often seem to think all customer contact is by the phone, still …

Naturally, there are enforcement powers which include a series of fines, including up to £10,000 for Helpline failings. But more significantly, if CPOs fail in their various obligations, they can be hit by a block on any further expansions of their networks.

A massive growth opportunity

The Government is targeting a minimum of 300,000 public electric chargers by 2030 – an almost six-fold increase on the 54,000 there are now. By comparison, there are currently c.8,000 petrol stations in the UK with c.66,000 pumps serving around 37 million internal combustion vehicles.

For CPOs, they need to scale their operations at a pace unlike, say, their predecessors of a generation ago – the mobile phone or internet service providers. They are faced with the same customer experience challenges of supporting consumers as they navigate a new marketplace, taking people from the shock of the new to their escalating expectations of a vitally needed utility service. But now they need to do so with an added layer of regulatory demands and targets – on top of the operational pressures of exponential growth in locations, customers and contacts.

Some CPOs may be attempting to build their own capabilities. They will need world-class technology and experienced customer servicing hands to design a service that not only meets customer expectations, but regulatory obligations too. For those who wish to outsource, they’ll need the right contact centre providers, and should pay particular attention to those with experience in regulated industries.

Either way, there is a huge opportunity to bring existing customer servicing expertise to this market, particularly for those who can demonstrate their ability to design and execute for scale, quickly and reliably.

The road to success

To do so successfully will mean designing a customer service infrastructure that combines:

  1. The smart use of data from their connected networks;
  2. Seamless advisor insight into the customers’ status and history – and third-party applications, like those for payments and roaming access (giving consumers access to multiple charge point networks);
  3. The resources and planning know-how to deliver a reliable but efficient 24/7 service;
  4. Skilled front-line advisors trained and willing not just to guide new customers through new processes, but support people at potential times of vulnerability and stress; AND
  5. The ability to expand service provision to match the scale of growing networks, while enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of customer service operations, applying insights gained on the ‘front line’.

This is a major undertaking, whether CPOs meet the customer service challenge internally or draw upon varying degrees of expert partner and/or outsourced service provision.

Here at Contact Centre Panel, we know that delivering high quality customer service in a fast growing, regulated market is hard both to plan and execute. It will be essential that CPOs capitalise on the expertise of those who have done it before and recognise some of the pitfalls and the tools and techniques on which to base success.

If you’d like to supercharge the design of your customer servicing environment, or find the right outsourced our technology match, get in touch. We’d love to help.

Some people love contracts, others see them as a “document of last resort”.

In the world of customer management / customer experience outsourcing, most people responsible for contracts, both clients and outsource service providers, will aim to be familiar with the service schedules of their contract, but through absorbing the key requirements and mechanisms into their day-to-day working lives. And they will rarely need to reference the original agreement.

Though that isn’t necessarily the way things work. 20 years ago, I had a client who would fly over from Paris once a month with an entire contract printed out, filling a lever arch file crammed into her work bag!

The vast majority of outsourcing contracts follow the same, familiar pattern; three years’ initial term, with the easy potential to extend for a further two. From a buyer’s perspective this offers the reassurance of five years’ clarity about who is going to provide vital customer management services, how and – subject to the vagaries of any cost of living allowance (COLA) measures in the contract to address inflation – confidence over the costs of those services. Equally, this contractual clarity and reassurance allows outsource service providers to better plan, invest and manage their business.

When contracts fail

Historically, this model of contracting tends to fall over when one of two things happen:

  1. The parties fall out and that commercially vital relationship collapses (and that’s why clients need to be very circumspect about the outsourced service provider they select in the first place!); AND/OR
  2. Changes in the nature of customer demand and behaviour challenge or undermine assumptions in the contract. Especially when transformational metrics and goals have been embedded into a contract, or when service providers are offering a total cost of ownership (TCO) bundled pricing model, a shift in consumer behaviour and their interactions – the volume of contacts, when they are made, using what channels – may serve to potentially undermine the operational and commercial basis of the contract.

Without naming names, those of us in the contact centre and CX industry can think of major outsourced service providers which bet big on their ability to reduce customer contact through things like enhanced self-service tools, but failed due to other, external factors. These drove up unanticipated demand – and the providers ended up with lengthy, loss-making contracts on their hands.

With the best will in the world relationships can always sour and founder, of course. However, we are all capable of learning from experience (at times!) and both seasoned clients and service providers have a broad understanding that there are caveats and limits to what providers can commit to in the face of what Harold Macmillan reputedly referred to as “events, dear boy, events”.

In which case the ‘3 + 2’ model of a well-crafted contract, featuring service schedules that balance a grasp of what’s feasible and achievable with meeting clients’ customer experience ambitions, seems fit for purpose. Doesn’t it? Maybe not.

So, what’s wrong with the old 3 + 2 model?

Here’s what’s wrong – for years the biggest risk and disruption factor for contact centre operations came from unmanageable and unanticipated demand. But now the greatest unpredictability comes from supply; how brands, outsourced service providers and their contact centres go about meeting that demand.

The increasing pace of change is a cliché, but it’s also true.

5 or even 3 years ago who could have accurately foreseen the rise of accessible, highly accurate translation engines that have made the need for multilingual staff in non-voice setting largely redundant in many operations? Today, AI-driven, synthetic voice tools that can deliver quality natural language conversations aren’t yet ready to be operationalised, but by 2026 they may well be. Until recently, accessible technologies that could accurately classify and summarise contacts without any human intervention, or the ability to reliably (and increasingly accurately) present advisors with the sort of guidance and information they need to help with precisely the sort of contact they are handling sounded like the stuff of contact centre managers’ fever dreams. No longer.

It’s hard to tell what the next few years will bring us in terms of time saving and resolution-enhancing technologies, but one thing that’s certain is that committing to a traditional fixed-model outsourced contact centre arrangement now feels like a risky undertaking.

So, what’s the solution?

Should clients do nothing and either:

  1. Not outsource key functions when their internal and market analysis says that that’s what’s needed; OR
  2. Let outmoded contractual terms roll over, fearful of committing to changes that can’t be undone and will expose them to worse problems down the line?

And if you’re an outsourced services provider faced with a wall of business-draining indecision from current and potential clients, what should you do?

3 points for your consideration

Clients:

  1. If you have, or are about to appoint, an outsourced services provider then you’re setting out to build and test a crucial relationship. Ideally, you’re doing so with a provider which will share with you the learnings from them having undertaken similar journeys with a variety of different clients before. If your partner dependably delivers an operational service with an honest and customer-focused approach, then they may well be the right partner for the next stage; exploiting the potential of AI & ML-based technologies (whether the initiative is taken by you as a client, or the provider comes to you with their chosen technologies).
  2. We all know it’s hard, but outputs – measures of positive customer experience, total cost of ownership, benchmarked service standards – are the most robust metrics to base your provider’s contractual quality of delivery on. Outsourced service providers increasingly understand that ‘more of the same’ contracts won’t meet the market’s needs.
  3. And if your current standards of customer service and delivery are really poor, either through an existing, failing outsourced provider or an in-house solution you can’t fix, then it’s better to settle for a new solution and a commercial arrangement that’s less than fully optimised and future-proofed, but does ensure better experience for you and your customers.

Service Providers:

  1. You may have had years of experience in innovating operationally and technically. Now’s the time to think more – or think afresh – about being commercially innovative. You have incredible insight through talking to clients – and their customers – day in and day out.
  2. Do you need to re-orientate your business model so that you are better able to cope with the potential impacts and risks of clients being with you for shorter, or less predictable period? Or can your application of technology to your and your clients’ mutual benefit help ensure longer relationships, even with less contractual commitment?
  3. For some service providers, more radical change may be required. If you need to identify and nurture genuine transformational partnerships, in place of ‘vanilla’ static service contracts with clients, then that will require a change in proposition, go to market strategy and your selection of potential clients.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on the future of the ‘3 + 2’ contracting model? Do you think we’re thinking along the right lines, or have we underestimated the enduring value of proven, traditional approach? Whether you’re a client or service provider we’d love to hear what you think.

And if you’re facing challenges designing the right sort of commercial arrangement for outsourcing – either as a client or service provider/BPO – we’re here to help.

Ofgem’s research shows that there has been a “decline in overall consumer satisfaction with customer service by domestic energy suppliers since 2018”. And new research undertaken by Thinks Insight and Strategy this summer highlighted that there are practical and emotional barriers to consumers – especially the most vulnerable –  getting the best service from their energy suppliers.  

Ofgem’s Proposal

Ofgem’s proposal covers a wide range of areas, but those of most interest to us are in the consumer customer experience and contact centre space:

  1. Requiring energy supplier enquiry lines to stay open longer, including evenings and weekends – and be easier to contact via multiple methods such as email, webchat or other digital-based platforms;
  2. Enabling more effective support for customers struggling with bills, including early intervention to identify and offer support such as temporary repayment holidays when consumers are unable to pay;
  3. Prioritising customers in vulnerable situations, or their representatives, who may need immediate assistance;
  4. Making 24/7 emergency support available for customers who are cut off from their power or gas supply due to issues with their supplier (e.g. meter faults); AND
  5. Compelling suppliers to make information available on customer service performance to help inform consumer choice when switching, and further drive improvements in service.

Practically what does this mean?

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An untimely Christmas present?

Ofgem intends to finalise the standards in October and have them in place by December. Of course, that’s about the most inconvenient time for energy firms, but perhaps the ideal time to put Ofgem’s ambitions to the test! 

In any event, December is only 3 months away and whatever measures firms need to put in place – technology enhancements, increased internal resources or the use of outsourced support – will need to be initiated very soon. 

What about the rest of us?

Of course, most of us don’t work in the energy sector, provide technology solutions or outsourced customer management services, so does this all matter?  

Well, it does, because the regulated industries increasingly act as a ‘leading indicator’ for the wider economy. In terms of defining expected levels and standards of service (even if that doesn’t necessarily translate into those expectations being met). The financial services, energy and water sectors often now provide a customer template for others to follow. 

If you’re supporting customers in the energy sector you might benefit from some help and support to meet the challenges presented by Ofgem’s new standards. Get in touch, we’d love to chat with you. 

Missed our latest payments webinar? Not to worry, we thought we would provide you with a quick recap of what you missed.

The Panel

We were joined by a super panel of industry experts that included:

Topics Discussed

The panel covered a range of topics during the session, including questions from our live audience. Some of the pertinent talking points included:

  1. Why does PCI DSS apply to contact centre outsourcers?
  2. How does an outsourcer certify their PCI DSS compliance?
  3. What is the downside if the client does not ask about our compliance?

Content to catch up to

Hit the button below to get access to a recording of the session.

If you offer your UK customers subscriptions for goods or services then there are significant changes coming your way. As mentioned above, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill is now making its way through parliament!

The Bill isn’t just concerned with subscriptions, there are 5 new requirements on firms that you really need to know about. These are planned to make subscriptions more transparent, understandable and to help address the ‘subscriptions trap’ which results in millions of consumers paying for things they no longer want or have forgotten.

Once passed into law, the changes aren’t likely to take effect until the second half of 2024. But that’s just a year away and you may well find that the contact centre, process, proposition, process and data changes required are significant.

And once you’re compliant with the new rules you can then assess their bottom-line impact on subscription acquisitions, retention and revenues. For some it’s likely to be massive.

Whats changing?

1. Full Transparency

When a subscription starts with a free or discounted period then the company needs to be transparent up front about the new or increased cost – and the date when it will start to be paid. If the subscription is purchased online (as almost all are), the consumer needs to acknowledge that they understand they need to pay; how much and when.

Free or reduced-price periods are one of the most common techniques used for marketing subscriptions. They still can be, of course, but the substantive rates and the point at which they become effective will need to be overtly highlighted in a way that they often aren’t today – and in a manner that allows the customer’s understanding of the terms to be captured

2. Sharing information, twice!

“Key information” is to be shared with consumers before they enter into a contract, with “full pre-contract information” (the small print stuff) to be provided as close to the start of the contract as possible – but both lots are to be provided separately, so consumers aren’t bombarded by lots of information at once.

So that’s two separate ‘sends’ of information. You will need to amend your processes, review all your information and terms and conditions – and decide which information needs to be sent to customers when.

3. Reminder and reminders

Reminders must be provided before the first payment and before renewal (at between 3 and 5 working days before renewal) – with two reminders for annual subscription contracts.

Yes, you’ll need to remind customers when they’re about to start paying, even after an introductory free period (and just to make things more challenging, unless the customer has opted into marketing communications, then to obey the Data Protection Act that reminder will need to be dull, factual and unpersuasive).

4. Easy cancellation

Consumers need to be able to cancel through a single communication, without undue barriers.

So, the days of requiring customers to speak to the ‘cancellation’ (i.e. retention) team are numbered! You won’t be able to demand that customers speak to an advisor in order to cancel.

5. Cooling off periods

Consumers buying digital products already benefit from a 14 day cooling off period, but the Bill proposes extending these periods for subscriptions:

Just from a data and customer management perspective these new cooling off requirements may prove onerous – never mind their revenue and retention impact.

What will be the impact?

The effect of these changes is likely to be substantial. The new duties will probably require extensive technology and data developments, but the commercial impacts will be considerable, too.

There is a lengthy list of exclusions from the scope of what the Bill considers to be subscriptions, including utilities contracts, insurance and financial services contracts, package holiday contracts, medical prescriptions and residential tenancy agreements. Though nearly all of those will have sector-specific requirements of their own, too.

As ever, contact centres will find themselves right in the midst of the collision of proposition, customers and compliance.

Looking for support to lessen the impact of this new bill? Get in touch, we’d love to chat with you.

Wednesday 5th July, 11:00 – 12:00 (BST)

Whilst we discuss why the PCI DSS applies to contact centre outsourcers, we will also shine a light on what the benefits are to you in delivering a secure payments capability, including enabling your clients to take more payments from more customers, more often, more easily and at less cost.

Points for discussion include:

• Why does PCI DSS apply to contact centre outsourcers?
• How does an outsourcer certify their PCI DSS compliance?
• What is the downside if the client does not ask about our compliance?
• How creating a competitive advantage for clients will win you more business.

The session will be based on pre-circulated content, shared on event registration, enabling you to get actively engaged in the conversation with our panelists

Meet the panel

Jeremy King

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VP, Regional Head for Europe,
PCI Security Standards Council

[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”Full Width Line” line_thickness=”1″ divider_color=”default”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1639756841207{padding-right: 75px !important;}”]Jeremy leads the Council’s efforts in increasing adoption and awareness of the PCI security standards internationally. He works closely with the Council and representatives of its policy-setting executive committee from American Express, Discover, JCB International, MasterCard and Visa. Jeremy serves as a resource for Approved Scanning Vendors, Qualified Security Assessors, Internal Security Assessors, PCI Forensic Investigators, and related staff in supporting regional training, certification and testing programs.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner column_padding=”padding-3-percent” column_padding_position=”right” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” width=”1/2″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][image_with_animation image_url=”27797″ alignment=”” animation=”Fade In” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”50%”][vc_column_text]

Andrew Barratt

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VP Technology & Enterprise Accounts,
Coalfire

[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”Full Width Line” line_thickness=”1″ divider_color=”default”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1687251077941{padding-right: 75px !important;}”]Andy Barratt has over 20 years of experience in IT and cybersecurity assurance. He leads delivery teams across a number of high-risk verticals including financial services, FinTech, and telecoms, advising on the complexities that are involved with the PCI DSS self assessment or audit processes. Andy is also a member of the Forbes Technology Council and a frequent media spokesperson both in the US and internationally.

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John Greenwood

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Director, Compliance3 and
Head of Technology & Payments,
Contact Centre Panel

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John is an innovative, award-winning contact centre specialist recognised for his ground-breaking work in securing telephone payments and his collaboration with the PCI Security Standards Council in drafting the PCI SSC Information Supplement Protecting telephone-based payment card data. He has supported over 50 PCI scope reduction projects, giving him a unique insight into the applicability of the PCI DSS in contact centres, the contact centre supply chain and the technology provider landscape. As Technology Lead and Payments SME at Contact Centre Panel, John will chair our event from a contact centre outsourcers and technology providers standpoint.

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Who should attend?

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The UK new anti-fraud strategy looks to ban (a) ban the cold calling of financial services products, (b) ban SIM farms, mass texting and number spoofing and (C) utilise Action Fraud services.

A few days ago, the UK Government announced its new strategy to help combat fraud. It’s not surprising that this provoked generated a lot of publicity, as current estimates are that fraud accounts for 40% of all crime and scams have already cost UK consumers over £4 billion since March this year.

So, what does the Strategy mean for business and those of us involved in the management of contact centres?

In truth the strategy is a mixed bag of things that were already in train, things that should have already happened and some promised new innovations.

1. Ban on the cold calling of financial services products

This is the proposed measure which created most media interest. Even in the age of mass digital adoption, unwanted or ‘nuisance’ calls continue to be an irritant to consumers – and the outbound channel continues to be attractive to fraudsters.

The government’s Strategy, which is currently a proposed set of measures under consultation rather than an agreed series of changes, is a little unclear on specifically what falls under the scope of this measure. At times the government has suggested any financial services product will be banned from cold calling and at others it has referred specifically to investment products – which would seem to be a very logical extension of the current ban on pensions cold calling.

However, even as the GDPR and the 2018 Data Protection Act still slowly percolates its way into the consciousness of some people who’d still prefer to forget all about them, hadn’t true ‘cold calling’ supposed to have stopped anyway? In any event, none of us should be calling consumers ‘cold’ to offer them financial services products, now, because the FCA bars the activity anyway. (see its Handbook and the imminent Consumer Duty).

Although if you call a customer or prospect that you deem to have a relationship with and who you think will anticipate hearing from you by phone and they don’t agree, then that’s a different matter! And if you use a business partner to provide you with sales leads – especially for financial services products – then some rigorous due diligence is called for.

2. Bans of SIM farms, mass texting and number spoofing

Sim Farms

Another key proposal contained in the strategy is a plan to ban both SIM farms and mass texting. It would be hard to work out what legitimate reason anybody would have to operate a SIM farm, which is a cheap device that allows mass calls and messages to be generated using numerous SIMs and mobile numbers. The USP of a SIM farm is that it allows the CLIs (outbound calling / texting numbers) to rapidly rotate, thus avoiding detection and the risk of being blocked by the networks.

Mass Texting 

Likewise mass texting is to be reviewed. As the government acknowledges there are obvious, beneficial use cases for the use of mass texting, but not many in the arena of sales and marketing.

Number Spoofing 

Fraudsters love the apparent ease with which legitimate calling numbers can be ‘spoofed’, so that the real origin of scammers’ calls are hidden. You might think that spoofing can best be addressed by the network operators, and you would be right. This proposed change is just a reflection of work Ofcom has finally started to focus on, getting the networks to deploy technical measures to stop spoofing. As well as applying more pressure on the networks and their re-sellers to undertake proper due diligence of contact centres and communication providers using numbers.

3. Action Fraud action (again)

Like Mark Twain, reports of the death of Action Fraud are greatly exaggerated. Action Fraud is a fraud reporting service run on behalf of the City of London police. It carries out a triage and assessment function, helping collate the volume and type of fraud, nationally, as well as providing data and insights. However, only a small minority of the c.1,000 cases reported to it each day by consumers go on to be actively investigated by the police.

Now the government has pledged to invest £30m over 3 years to replace Action Fraud with “a state-of-the-art reporting centre, including a simple to use reporting website and upgraded call centre with reduced waiting times”. In fairness, while that doesn’t sound especially ambitious it will a step-change improvement over the current service.

So, if you might benefit from a chat about how you handle your outbound calling, CLI treatments, how you assess marketing permissions for proactive communications including by SMS – or anything else the new Strategy touches on – then just let us know (unless you’re a fraudster, of course).

You’ll need to tailor that approach according to sector, profile and demographics, but speaking to people is where you start to bring all that hard work together.

How easy is it to sign up or subscribe to your company’s products or services? Pretty easy I should think (or hope). Now more than ever, organisations understand that in our hyper-competitive world, a friction-free way to make consumers aware of what you offer and to make it as easy as possible to become your customers, is vital.

However, deliberately creating friction and barriers for customers looking to leave is almost as common. We all know that it takes a lot of effort and expense to acquire customers, so surely making it a bit of an up-hill slog for customers to leave is just common sense?

Maybe, but possibly that’s all about to change. Be warned!
In the US, Ericsson-owned Vonage has been fined $100m by the US Federal Trade Commission for using a raft of measures which meant that domestic and small business customers found it almost impossible to cancel Vonage’s VoIP services.

Vonage’s services were easy to start using, with many customers offered ’free trial’ opportunities allied to less-than-transparent switches to default sign-up and auto-billing. But when it came to trying to cancel their membership, things were difficult and ‘friction’ was everywhere. The tactics Vonage used ranged across: the sophisticated use of ‘dark patterns’ on the web; making customers speak to ‘retention team’ advisors in order to cancel; hiding the ‘retention’ phone numbers; routing cancellation calls to barely-staffed phone lines with inconvenient opening times.

“Do as I say, not as I do”

The FTC gleefully highlighted Vonage’s own advice to its business customers which it totally failed to take itself – a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do”.

Vonage’s advice included:

They don’t mean us though, do they?

However, most of us aren’t in the US and not under the jurisdiction of the FTC, so does this really matter?

Well, first of all, a lot of us work directly or indirectly supporting US clients and their customer experience delivery, so it’s always helpful to know if you’re potentially part of delivering illegal customer journeys!

But equally, government regulation tends to – slowly – follow international trends. So, Vonage’s recent experience might be a $100m sign of things to come in other markets and jurisdictions. In the UK we know that government is still determined to tackle the consumer ‘loyalty penalty’ (the fact that many products and services are cheaper for new customers than for loyal, long-established users), which is closely related to a customer’s ability to exit expensive deals and relationships – and similar concerns are voiced in the EU and expressed through its Digital Services Act.

So, if part of your customer retention strategy is the creation of challenging journeys for people looking to cancel, then it may be time to do some redesign!

However, it might be that you provide services to a financial services firm at some point along its customers’ journeys, or that you are in a customer-facing part of a financial services firm that tends to be the last involved in these big programmes of work. In which case, what do you need to know?

If that is the case, it will almost certainly pay dividends to take some time to read through the FCA’s documents and guidance, which you can do here. You don’t need to be an expert in it all, but it’s good to be able to put the customer contact tasks in a wider perspective of what’s trying to be achieved, which is “delivering good outcomes for retail customers”.

The Consumer Duty is broad in its scope. It naturally has a major focus on how B2C financial services products and services are designed. As well as the changes at executive level that need to be made to recognise the Consumer Duty’s demands. But – I hope – you don’t need to worry about that, because your colleagues or clients should already have that in hand. Where they might benefit from your help is in how firms communicate with customers and support them. This is where the contact centre and customer engagement teams’ detailed understanding of customers and their needs can really help.

Customer Communications

Even if you have no direct role in the creation and distribution of automated communications (letters, texts, emails, in-app notifications, etc.) you will have ‘from the horse’s mouth’ an understanding of how they are received, understood and acted upon. Previously firms were obliged to be “clear, fair and not misleading” in their communications. Now they need to be “understandable” to a whole range of customers, in a variety of circumstances, including those considered to be vulnerable.

This is likely to require:

All of which you and your teams are perfectly placed to help with.

Training

Your teams are directly interacting with customers. To do this as well as the Consumer Duty will demand, your people will need the skills and tools to:

If you feel that this is not already the case, then you need to ensure that training, coaching tools and resources are made available to you. If all these elements are already in place, then now might be the time for you to start training the rest of your organisation on these vital skills and aptitudes!

If you’d like to discuss how you are facing up to the Consumer Duty’s customer management challenges, just drop us a line.

Even today, businesses find themselves with new compliance challenges; homeworking is a great example of this.

So, do you need to spend big (or spend anything at all) to become compliant? The answer is both yes and no, for the reason being that it depends on your company objectives. For example, if your business finds itself taking payments for a product or service, then you will need to become PCI DSS compliant to do so (due to the regulations that are in place to protect cardholder data). Not only will you have to complete the process to provide an attestation of compliance, but you will also need to employ the right resource to undertake this task. Ultimately this will take both time and money for it to be completed.

However, I’ve always been a firm believer that applying best practice shouldn’t have to cost you the earth. Here are my top 4 tips on what you can do today without spending big money:

1. Documentation

It’s usually the last thing on our minds, however documenting your processes and procedures is vital in not only demonstrating your standards, but also leaving a set of documented instructions for new employees or third parties. A simple flow diagram will suffice if you don’t possess any great writing skills within the business.

2. Assess Risk

After you have documented your processes and procedures, you should review these with key business stakeholders to identify any risks. If you do identify any risks, I would suggest logging these somewhere. There are plenty of risk templates online, a simple Google away. By logging risks, you’re halfway there in showing risk and compliance best practice. You then need to decide whether you address that risk or accept the risk.

3. Keep up-to-date

Make sure that you know your industry. There are updates all the time to regulations, laws and best practice, so make sure you follow and react to these changes. I would suggest subscribing to regular newsletters, be that the ICO for Data Protection Regulation changes or the FCA for all things financial. You will also find updates within this monthly Insights publication, along with the latest information from the world of contact centres.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask

Rather than cowering under your desk at the thought of any of the above, don’t be afraid to ask the question. Be that a colleague, a like-minded business or Contact Centre Panel! You will be surprised how receptive people are to a soul in need.

By adopting the 4 steps above as your mantra, you will put yourself and your business on the right road to your eventual destination.

Looking for support with your next compliance project? Drop us a message and let’s chat!