CHALLENGE

  • Our client, a large building society, asked us to design and implement an outcomes focused Quality Assurance (QA) methodology. This covered a range of core products including: investments; protection; mortgages; and retail products linked to packaged accounts.
  • We were asked to assess the existing customer contact approach, and develop a series of customer outcomes that could be mapped against the end-to-end ‘customer journey’.
  • These would be used to develop a post-sales customer contact framework and methodology together with appropriate scripts for each product and advice channel.

ACTION

  • We developed a framework that met regulatory and commercial expectations, drafted a new outcomes focused QA methodology and script, and a management information (MI) pack that facilitated effective root cause analysis (RCA).
  • We recruited, trained and signed off a temporary QA team, and provided ongoing support and management oversight of this team throughout the project.

1. Phase One

  • Conducted a thorough ‘current state’ review and interviewed members of the sales quality monitoring teams to understand the issues.
  • Benchmarked the firm’s existing customer contact process against regulatory expectations and industry best practice.
  • Assessed the firm’s existing approach including its sampling method; customer detriment remediation process; scripts; appropriateness of QA activity; the level and type of MI that was being produced; and internal control mechanisms.

2. Phase Two

  • Defined the end-to-end ‘customer journey’ for each regulated product which helped to develop a series of customer outcomes.
  • Designed and built the post-sales customer contact QA framework, helping to ensure outcomes focused QA is carried out consistently throughout the business.

3. Phase Three

  • Created an operating environment for customer contact through creation of an outcomes focused QA tool, scripts, policies, processes and procedures, and MI pack.

4. Phase Four

  • Whilst recruiting a permanent team, a temporary team undertook outcomes testing QA. We provided accreditation and a competency sign-off programme for all team members, and continue to provide ongoing support.

RESULT

  • Our new QA methodology identifies unfair customer outcomes that have potential for customer detriment.
  • Our client is now able to pinpoint where in the customer journey unfair customer outcomes have occurred, and determine if this has been caused by failure to follow a process or as a result of following a flawed process.
  • Our reporting tools enables our client to proactively monitor and identify where and when customer detriment occurs.
  • As a measure of our success, our engagement was extended to support further roll-out of the QA process to the customer services/operations and complaints handling areas of the business.