Over the weekend it was announced that the FCA had fined HomeServe £ 30.6m for mis-selling insurance policies and mishandling customer complaints. The pay to sales teams was structured in a way that gave staff incentives to increase the volume of products sold, irrespective of of customers' need for the products. Many of the customers were vulnerable older people.
The pay structure also meant that people handling complaints were paid according to how many they closed, regardless of the outcome for the customer. As usual with these cases, the Board and senior management were also found wanting IE not "sufficiently engaged" with compliance matters.
At one time there used to be a marketing mantra which was treat " a customer complaining as a loyal customer giving you a second chance" and with this kind of ethos a complaining customer provides the company with opportunities to turn the transactions round and build relationships and loyalty (i.e in the main all people need is to be listened to and taken seriously).
Which? also reported that the big six energy companies had problems with complaints as they received 5.5m complaints in a year. There may not be any genuine loyalty with utility companies but it is clear that by not investigating complaints early enough (root cause analysis, feedback, action) they have engendered contempt for customers rather than creating opportunities to prove they really care. Thankfully this kind of behaviour is no longer tolerated by any of the regulators.
No comments:
Post a Comment