Zinc’s consumer duty culture: Open statement of thanks to our team

Before you flip the page to the next article, don’t worry, as a business, we understand that the debate and discussions about the importance of consumer duty have already taken place. We also understand that, just like Zinc, many of you reading this will now be in a position to say that you are Consumer Duty fit. We just wanted to share with you our experience of the journey we took as a business, and to be specific, the journey our people have been on to ensure that we too are Consumer Duty fit. It may even be fair to say that rather than a thought piece, this month’s business insight is more of an open statement to our team, expressing our gratitude for their commitment to the process, and the valuable inputs they have given during the implementation of our Consumer Duty ethos.

Like most of you reading this, Zinc and our people have spent the preceding months reviewing policies and processes, writing and implanting new policies and processes, as reviewing over one million worth of words in content used in our external communications, all to ensure that when a customer deals with Zinc, they receive the best possible service in a clear and easy to understand environment ensuring best duty of care.

But policies and procedures will only take any business so far on a journey such as this, as it’s the actions of our people which has the biggest and most positive impact on customer experience and ultimately ensure the best outcomes for customers, which is why we ensured that everyone at Zinc was positively engaged with the process from day one. As part of our readiness strategy, we have engaged our people in a number of exercises, which have included interactive training modules and quizzes, inviting front-line team members to give their input on what they feel constitutes good practice and positive outcomes and even invited staff to design our inhouse consumer duty commitment posters, which are now displayed across our locations.

So, in conclusion, we would like to say a huge thank you to our team, for not only their involvement in the process but for their commitment to the ethos and culture of ensuring that Consumer Duty principles sit at the heart of everything we do.

Dougie McManus CEO, The Zinc Group