The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published
proposals that for the first time will 'name and shame' banks with a poor record for handling customer complaints. The proposals would see firms publishing their own complaints data every six months and the watchdog would publish results from the whole
sector twice a year.
Introducing the policy, Dan Waters, the FSA’s director of retail policy and conduct risk, says: "Publishing this information will incentivise firms to deal more effectively with complaints and help to raise industry standards in this important area. It
is essential that the information is meaningful and genuinely brings benefits by enhancing customers’ experiences of the firms they deal with."
The banks have fought long and hard to keep these proposals at bay, for reasons best explained by this anonymous poster to a Times Online
article:
"I work in complaints for one of the major high street banks. Its not a revenue creating area so staffing & resources are kept to a minimum, but with strict productivity targets. Hence rather than deal with a complaint effectively it is easier to refute
the complaint and let it go to the Ombudsman."
For a customer-driven business, the banking industry sure has a warped view of the best way to handle customer relationships. No wonder the new Web 2.0 era of open social communications is treated with such suspicion.