Financial Services Firms Miss up to 17 Million Customer Feedback Opportunities Every Year
By Rod Newing, Vice President, Client Director - Financial Services | February 6, 2019
Customer feedback is vital for brands looking to protect and grow their market share.
Understanding customer’s wants, needs and expectations means providers can better service customers through streamlined services, targeted product offerings and improved experiences. And businesses who work to actively improve customer service can, and will, see revenue grow.
Yet for financial brands, customer feedback holds even more value.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s Treating Customers Fairly initiative aims to ensure the fair treatment of customers is embedded at the heart of financial institutions. Brands must consistently demonstrate that fair treatment is part of their business culture – and Voice of the Customer feedback is the most effective and efficient way of doing this.
Less than half of finance customer asked to provide feedback
But Maru/edr insight reveals that less than half (45%) of finance customers have been asked to participate in feedback by their provider in the last twelve months.
Yet 84% of customers who hold a financial services product or service would be willing to provide their feedback if given the chance.
51million UK adults hold at least one financial services product according to UK Credit Cards. It equates to 17million feedback opportunities missed every year.
There’s clearly an appetite from customers to have their voices heard.
But it also represents a huge missed opportunity for financial services providers to demonstrate their commitment to the fair treatment of customers and use resulting insight to shape propositions, services and operations.
Measuring fair treatment through VoC feedback
Fairness means a variety of things to customers – from being treated equally to transparent communication and improved customer service.
It reinforces the importance of gathering Voice of the Customer feedback across key customer journeys. From new acquisitions to lapsed customers and open complaints, it’s important solicit customer experience feedback in the right way to understand performance and uncover areas for improvement.
It’s why brands need to follow the feedback journey.
Intelligent analysis identifies both if customers are being treated fairly and where improvements can be made. It helps brands deliver a customer experience that delights and differentiates in a highly competitive market, as well as compliance with FCA policies and regulations.
Follow the feedback journey
Brands can understand not just where to improve but how by combining VoC results with profiled customer panel feedback, including content-testing. Brands can work alongside customers to co-create the ideal solution and outcome – and all while ensuring the fair treatment of customers.
As researchers, we need to get customer experience managers closer to their customers through feedback, insight and action. Client-side decision-makers need to not only listen to customers, but to develop a deeper understanding of wants, needs and expectations to better service their customer base.
It’s why we all need to follow the feedback journey – listening to results, finding focus areas, understanding pain points and co-creating the ideal solution for maximum return.