INDUSTRY ARTICLE PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE, THE COMPLAINT COSTING BILLIONS REACTIVE AND PROACTIVE EFFICIENT CASE MANAGEMENT WITH RESPOND

Transcription

1 INDUSTRY ARTICLE PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE, THE COMPLAINT COSTING BILLIONS REACTIVE AND PROACTIVE EFFICIENT CASE MANAGEMENT WITH RESPOND

2 INDUSTRY ARTICLE PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE, THE COMPLAINT COSTING BILLIONS 2 ABOUT PPI (Payment Protection Insurance) is the big wave that hit the UK insurance industry, plus the wider market offering these insurance policies. The regulator and High Court found woeful standards in how policies were sold and near enough ruled that all policies should be repaid along with compensation. Since that ruling an industry of Claims Management Companies (acting as agents for policy holders) and consumers acting independently have been raiding the PPI pot to the tune of GBP 17.3bln as of October 2014 (since January 2011). Introduced to the market in 1998, Respond quickly became a leading tool for organisations with a need to care for their complaints and feedback. Since then Respond has continued to lead the market for complaints and feedback by evolving as the business and technical needs of organisations have changed. In recent years the changes in both the technology deployed by organisations and the demands placed on feedback system have resulted in more revolutionary changes to the Respond Solution.

3 INDUSTRY ARTICLE PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE, THE COMPLAINT COSTING BILLIONS 3 PPI AND ITS IMPACT ON UK FINANCE REGULATION Payment Protection Inurance, or PPI, was a massive blow to the UK financial services industry when collectively the order of the day lost its battle against repaying claims due to mis-selling. The product itself still exists but from April 2012 regulatory changes prevented most instances of it being retailed at the point of taking out credit. The history of PPI saw instances of buyers being told it was a mandatory extra, policies being issued without any potential of paying out and sales staff forced to hit targets without thought to the actual needs or wants of the customer. For those working within financial complaints the change in culture at the regulators was marked. Both the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have moved to a position of the customer being sacrosanct and the onus of disproof seemingly being placed on the business. Root Cause Analysis, Treating Customers Fairly, Conduct Risk and a complaints system fit for purpose are just some of the areas any regulated firm must adhere to. Must now being an understatement. At the consumer end a barrage of TV adverts, online campaigns, unsolicited text messages, phone calls plus print advertising and mail shots from Claims Management Companies (CMCs) have energised a population to complain... for compensation. The situation exists whereby anyone who can prove they had a policy stands a chance of a successful payout regardless of whether they were unhappy. The same attitude now prevails outside of PPI; banks are seen as peddlers of evil and consumers see themselves hard done by and entitled to a payout at the slightest inconvenience. THE PPI NUMBERS Since January 2011 the FCA (previously FSA, Financial Services Authority) has tracked and published payouts made as a result of PPI complaints. - As of October 2014 the balance stands at GBP 17.3bln. - The backlog of complaints was so large that the FSA agreed in 2011 to allow certains firms longer to deal with claims, beyond the usual regimented timeframes. - The FCA reported 3,181,000 PPI complaints in 2013, a further 7,700 complaints for income protection and 5,400 complaints for critical illness cover. - To put these numbers into perspective, the next most complained about item was Other general insurance with 635,000 complaints. Even the total of all non-ppi complaints was only 2,208,000, less than PPI. - CMCs sensing the peak of PPI claims are now prospecting for their next ventures. Areas identified as targets are paid for bank accounts, gap insurance, personal device cover and any finance product sold outside of a finance company (such as warranties by non finance qualified or trained staff). There is still a huge administrative task ahead, but this can be simplified with the use of effective and proactive customer complaint management tools. Respond PPI will open up two-way communications with customers, resulting in a far more positive customer relationship moving forward. David Ward, Director of Product Management for Respond COST SAVINGS AND EFFICIENCY GAINS The biggest issue with PPI is how many policies existed and the lack of documentation to prove fair play. Firms have set aside funds purely for paying these claims and the critieria for some is merely the proof of buying a policy and a statement of dissatisfaction. This creates a huge bottle neck for those without a system. A real

4 INDUSTRY ARTICLE PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE, THE COMPLAINT COSTING BILLIONS 4 solution allows degrees of automation and is capable of importing batch submissions of complaints from Claims Management Companies. Aptean s Respond solution provides a total environment that allows for both reactive and proactive customer complaints and feedback management. This means that rather than each case being finitely reviewed, the system is able to follow rules set by the firm to fast track obvious payouts and challenge those that do not hold water. Immediate cost saving and efficiency gains will be achieved by those handling PPI compensation claims by using Respond for PPI. The system manages every incident from the initial identification of eligible customers through to compensation payment communication. This can allow you to idenitify eligible complaints before the customer decides to become aggrieved; the only win to be had from a no-win situation. THE 5-STEP CHALLENGE TO BEST MANAGE YOUR CLAIMS The following five steps will help you to understand, plan and address the PPI compensation claims management process: 1. Understand the case population (which loans are open / closed). 2. Segment customers into common groups based on point Design the response to each customer segment. 4. Proactively contact customers. 5. Manage inbound compensation claims. THE RESPOND PPI SOLUTION In addition to increasing the efficiency of call agents, Respond PPI ensures the standardisation of response collateral and facilitates direct reporting to the FCA. The Respond PPI solution ensures there is an audit trail against all correspondence. This will be vital in the cases where a PPI complaint is not upheld and the customer refers to the regulator. The low-cost PPI solution is extremely quick and easy to deploy and will immediately increase the efficiency and effectiveness of managing PPI compensation claims. HOW ELSE DOES RESPOND HELP MANAGE PPI CASES? - Intelligent and simple to use workflow process for case capture - Workflow and business rule engines for end-to-end process control - Centralised and complaint based document management - Hierarchical levels of look-up data for categorisation, classification and grouping - Response action tracking - Goodwill and compensation payment tracking - Support for approval processes - Sophisticated management reporting HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO SET UP RESPOND PPI? Respond PPI is a web-based solution. This makes it extremely fast, low-cost and simple to deploy. Additional users can be setup as required and, because it is browser based, there are no limitations on the number of sites or locations where it can be used. This also makes it easy for the management team to review the status of processes at any time. Before the run on PPI, Respond was and still is used by the majority of mainstream UK finance firms to best manage the critical function of complaints. Working with industry leaders we were able to enhance Respond specifically to provide a fit for purpose answer for PPI. Mark Chambers, Aptean s EMEA Solutions Director Financial & Commercial Services, Retail & Distribution

5 INDUSTRY ARTICLE PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE, THE COMPLAINT COSTING BILLIONS 5 DRIVERS FOR COMPLAINTS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE BEYOND THE SHOCK OF PPI INCREASE SHARE OF WALLET Retaining customers and increasing share of wallet are major challenges. If you handle complaints well and learn from them then you are better placed to strengthen long-term relationships and earn customer loyalty. Complaints handled correctly make your unhappy customers happy, assist your customer retention rates, spur on customer advocacy and ultimately increase your profit per customer. IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Learning from the complaint and applying that learning across the business helps you understand customer needs. This in turn allows for the delivery of consistently good experiences and customer service excellence. STEM THE LOSS OF PROFITABLE CUSTOMERS IF YOU HAVE PPI COMPLAINTS THEN YOU NEED A SOLUTION, BEFORE YOU BUY... Respond is ready to handle PPI claims, but realising you will want to benchmark it against other options, such as inhouse systems or even cleverly constructed MS Access databases, consider the following as a free checklist before you commit: - Does the customer management platform enable proactive customer communication? - Can it handle high volumes quickly? - Is it easy to set up? And is it frontline user friendly? - Are there limitations on the number of users or locations? - Does it interface with legacy databases? - Will it maximise agent efficiency? - Is it cost effective? Many firms do not have a solid understanding of why they lose customers. Only a small percentage of customers (subject to a poor experience) will actually complain. There is a real risk that the significantly larger majority of silent dissatisfied customers will churn. In order to stem the loss of profitable customers it is imperative that you encourage your customers to speak up. Make your complaints and feedback channels more transparent and accessible and treat complaints as an asset and not just a regulatory obligation. More than 5,000 customers around the world rely on Aptean to give them a competitive edge. By providing innovative, industry-driven enterprise application software, Aptean helps businesses to satisfy their customers, operate more efficiently, and stay at the forefront of their industry. For more information, visit: Copyright Aptean All rights reserved.