Most of us have at least one bank account, credit card, insurance, pension and/or investment but our satisfaction with them is falling, as newly-released figures show.
New complaints figures published today (22/03/23) by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) indicate that yet again complaints against individual businesses have risen. During the last reported quarter 1 July – 31 December 2022 (H2) it received a total of 79,921 new complaints, compared to 72,978 in the previous six months (H1).
“The headline figures are:
- 50,346 new banking and credit complaints in H2 2022, compared to 44,200 in H1 2022.
- 19,346 new general insurance/pure protection complaints in H2 2022, compared to 17,530 in H1 2022.
- 4,160 new mortgages and home finance complaints in H2 2022, compared to 3,658 in H1 2022.
- 3,842 new decumulation life and pension complaints in H2 2022, compared to 4,193 in H1 2022
- 2,227 new investment complaints in H2 2022, compared to 2,427 in H1 2022.”
These latest figures from the FOS do not surprise me. It is just like many other sectors, such as the Energy Ombudsman, the number of complaints is continually rising as consumers become increasingly frustrated with service and complaint handling.
In January of this year the Institute of Customer Service published research showing that 14.3% of consumers said they experienced a problem with customer service pre-COVID, rising to 17% during the 6 months from July 2022 – December 2022.
Hopefully the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty which comes into force in July 2023, will oblige businesses to do more to deal with complaints. In particular, that firms must now employ more staff in customer-facing roles to improve wait times and service standards.
The Consumer Duty will require financial companies to act to deliver four good outcomes for customers. There will be four rules relating to the outcomes expected by the FCA.
The outcomes relate to:
- products and services
- price and value
- consumer understanding
- consumer support
The FCA will expect companies to “Consider the needs, characteristics and objectives of their customers – including those with characteristics of vulnerability – and how they behave, at every stage of the customer journey. As well as acting to deliver good customer outcomes, firms will need to understand and evidence whether those outcomes are being met.”
Ultimately the FCA will fine any company it finds breaching the Consumer Duty.
Businesses in all sectors need to invest more in customer service and getting things right for customers. At a time when millions of consumers are struggling financially it is just not acceptable that businesses put extra strain onto their customers having to deal with complaints and being out of pocket.
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