5 Reasons for using Quality Assurance to develop staff
With so much focus on great outcomes for customers, fair value for customers, improved customer understanding and access to the correct level of customer support it is vital that time, effort and expertise is provided to develop your staff to reach new levels of customer focus. Quality Assurance that focuses on assessing customer outcomes is an invaluable tool for identifying where staff need to develop to reach these previously unmeasured standards and principles.
July 2023 saw the launch of ‘Consumer Duty’ which the regulator has launched as ‘Our new Duty sets higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services and requires firms to put their customers’ needs first’.
There is now a new Principle 12 which sets out that “A firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.” Principle 12 is considered to impose a higher and more exacting standard of conduct than Principles 6 and 7.
This is supported by the 4 consumer outcomes, below provides a summary:
Products and services
Aimed at ensuring that products are designed to meet the needs, characteristics, and objectives of a target group of customers and are distributed appropriately.
Price and value
The FCA wants all consumers to receive fair value. This is not just about price but ensuring that there is a reasonable relationship between the price paid for a product or service and the overall benefit a consumer receives from it.
Consumer understanding
Designed to ensure that firms support and enable consumers to make informed decisions about financial products and services. Firms will be required to provide information consumers need, at the right time, and presented in a way they can understand.
Consumer support
Requires firms to provide a level of support that meets consumers’ needs throughout their relationship with a firm. Firms will be required to: design and deliver support to retail customers in a way that meets the needs of all retail customers (including those with characteristics of vulnerability); ensure that retail customers can use their product as reasonably anticipated; ensure that they include appropriate information in customer journeys to mitigate the risk of harm; and ensure that retail customers do not face unreasonable barriers during the lifecycle of the product.
With so much ‘new’ stuff to be aware off and measure, as a business, you need to ask yourself:
What assessment has the business made about whether its customer support is meeting the needs of customers (including those with characteristics of vulnerability)? What measures, processes, data, management information, and customer feedback are being used to support this assessment?
How has the business satisfied itself that the quality of any post-sale support is as good as the pre-sale support? (Particularly in relation to consumer outcomes 3 & 4)
What measures, processes, data, management information, and feedback are the business using to monitor the impact its consumer support is having on customer outcomes? How often is this data monitored, and what action is being taken as a result?
Our top 5 reasons why quality assurance develops your staff, your business and safeguards your customer:
Quality assurance is the foundation of a business’ work culture.
When quality assurance is a priority for a business, it sets the right tone. A work culture focused on delivering certain standards is good for everyone – staff, customers, and the business itself.
Quality assurance creates clear expectations for everyone.
In striving for a high-quality service or product a quality assurance process sets clear expectations and standards from the start. There’s less room for error or misunderstanding when staff know what they’re expected to do.
Quality assurance has a positive impact on staff morale.
When staff understand what’s expected of them, they are less stressed and better able to focus on providing established standards of customer care and focus. The positive impact of quality assurance also extends to their faith in the business and its management team.
Quality assurance boosts customer confidence.
When businesses use quality assurance processes, they’re letting customers know that they care about them and their priorities. This is best demonstrated through the knowledge, skill, and behaviours of the staff.
Quality assurance is good for a business’ reputation.
A Good reputation is vital. Customers will want to stick with a business they already trust. Quality assurance is an important part of building that great reputation as it is best demonstrated through the staff.
Insurance Support Solutions Ltd can provide a bespoke quality assurance approach that clearly identifies the strengths and development requirements of your business and staff, ensuring:
Adherence to Principle 12
Staff competence
Customer trust and confidence
Business stability
Ask us about what is involved, and we will work with you to provide a bespoke solution that gives you the confidence and conviction to embrace Principle 12 and its intended positive impact on customer experience.
And Finally…
We set up a quality assurance team to watch the earth spin round…they observed for 24 hours before they got bored and called it a day! (Read this 7 times and it becomes a real WEEK joke!)
