Over half (52%) of financial services customers feel that financial services firms treat consumers unfairly, according to new research by Voice of the Customer (VoC) pioneers Maru/edr. The findings are from a new study into customer treatment in the financial services industry, which interviewed 1,000 independent customers who held at least once financial product in the UK in the last 12 months.
The study tested key components of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) policy by questioning respondents about their perceptions and experiences of financial service providers. The TCF initiative requires brands to consistently demonstrate that fair treatment is part of their business culture – and suggests customer feedback is one of the most effective and efficient ways of doing this.
The study reveals that 62% of finance customers were aware of the FCA’s fair treatment policy. Despite this, findings illustrate that financial services firms are failing to capture feedback – and therefore demonstrate fair treatment – from 17 million customers* every year:
Steve Brockway, Chief Research Officer at Maru/edr, said “Customer feedback is vital for brands looking to protect and grow their market share. Yet for financial brands, customer feedback holds even more value in both improving services and demonstrating FCA compliance. There’s clearly an appetite from customers to have their voices heard – the growth of review sites is testament to the expanding feedback culture we now live in. But financial services brands are clearly currently missing a huge opportunity leaving customers feeling unfairly treated.”