This post was originally published on fca.org.uk
Design, adapt, and test
We found that firms who understood their customers were better able to design support around real needs, adapt their communications, and ensure people received a consistent experience.
This helped them deliver better outcomes, reduce barriers to access and support customers to make effective use of products and services.
And they were able to do this in simple, customer-centred ways.
Almost every firm we looked at could point to policies, training materials or procedures. These are a good start.
But these alone don’t guarantee customers will get good outcomes.
The most successful firms went a step further. They asked whether those arrangements were really working in practice, and checked.
They used management information, complaints data, customer feedback and quality assurance to understand how customers in vulnerable circumstances were actually experiencing their products and services.
If something wasn’t working, they changed it.