Mystery Shopping for FCA Compliance (Consumer Credit)
Mystery Shopping is a priceless tool already helping many UK businesses involved in the sale of consumer credit to achieve and maintain (and also crucially to document) their compliance with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations.
Mystery Shopping provides highly detailed feedback on actual interactions with staff, providing clear insights into what happens at the "coal face”, during those moments when needs are established, and when advice and information are provided.
Customerwise delivers the highest quality Mystery Shopping services and helps many firms involved in the sale of consumer credit products with oversight, including car dealerships, retailers, lenders, and licensed credit brokers.
Schedule a discovery call or call now on 01392 984224.
Tamsin, Hannah and Lucy have truly excelled in supporting our compliance audit needs. Customerwise’s industry knowledge has been instrumental in building a robust mystery shop framework tailored to our newly established compliance audit requirements. Their responsiveness and friendly approach have made collaboration seamless and enjoyable. Their proactivity and openness has helped strengthen our governance processes by providing real-time information from their wide-ranging network of mystery shoppers who are able to fulfil a number of briefs. I highly recommend Customerwise to any organisation seeking a reliable partner in mystery shopping and compliance audit solutions. Their dedication and skill have made a significantly positive impact on our operations.
Allianz
We have worked with Customerwise for several years now. They support us with the oversight of our Appointed Representative network and our Directly Authorised clients. The Team at Customerwise are always on hand to support us and with the technology behind them deliver strong management information which informs risk, and our policies and procedures that follow. We would highly recommend the team at Customerwise to other firms wishing to use mystery shopping as part of their compliance monitoring program.
Product Partnerships
“I’ve been consistently impressed with the quality of delivery and the responsive account management that we’ve received from Customerwise, and I would highly recommend them.”
Fiat Chrysler Automotive (now CA Auto Finance)
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See how we manage an evolving, multi-brand, multi-channel FCA Compliance Mystery Shopping programme
Following proposals, announcements and comments from the FCA over recent times (especially around the new Consumer Duty), three things are clear:
- Achieving FCA compliance is set to become far more demanding and onerous for regulated businesses.
- The importance of effective and documented oversight of regulated businesses is only going to increase.
- The value and importance of well-managed Mystery Shopping programmes for regulated businesses will become increasingly apparent.
To discuss a Mystery Shopping programme for your organisation, call us now on 01392 984224. Alternatively, email us on connect@customerwise.co.uk or click here to book an initial discovery call with one of our team.
The changing face of FCA Compliance
The new Consumer Duty, including the Consumer Principle, is leading to far greater demands and responsibilities on consumer credit providers. The new rules create a (very real) “duty of care” towards customers.
Credit brokers and providers (and even their suppliers) will need to take responsibility not just for providing accurate information, but also for customer service, and even for ensuring positive customer outcomes. This includes firms offering more straightforward consumer credit, and those involved in products like lifetime mortgages or later life mortgages.
One key requirement is that businesses should treat customers as they (or their leaders) would wish to be treated.
There will be a responsibility to ensure that any products sold are “fit for purpose and offer fair value", and that "communications and customer service enable consumers to make and act on well-informed decisions”.
The FCA says that good customer outcomes are going to need to become business objectives. Special care will need to be taken to ensure that vulnerable customers achieve the same outcomes as other customers. The regulator has acknowledged that, for many firms, this will demand a significant shift in culture and behaviour.
More rigorous enforcement
While the FCA’s requirements themselves look set to become far more burdensome (and potentially subjective), the regulator has also made it clear that it intends to take a far more “hard line” approach to cases of non-compliance.
CEO Nikhil Rathi has recently stated that the FCA will not hesitate to remove firms from their “regulatory perimeter” (remove licenses) in cases of non-compliance. There have already been signs that things have begun to move in this direction.
For businesses involved in selling consumer credit, this situation of increasingly rigorous regulation seems to be one that’s very real and it deserves close attention.
Paying appropriate attention to these developments (and responding appropriately) could be critical to future success.
Mystery Shopping can help you to achieve and maintain compliance with FCA rules on consumer credit.
Without clear detailed feedback on what happens during customer interactions, it’s impossible to reliably measure or monitor your compliance.
Mystery Shopping can “hold up a mirror” to show you a clear view of your current standards and practices. This clear view can then be compared against current FCA rules, and then also against the proposed principles, standards and (eventually) new rules as they come into force.
Mystery Shopping has always been most valuable (especially for compliance applications) when used on an ongoing basis.
But with the introduction of the Consumer Duty (with increased requirements for monitoring clear communication and customer service), ongoing Mystery Shopping is going to become a truly essential part of the compliance toolbox.
Must-haves
If you are considering using Mystery Shopping for compliance purposes, it’s essential that you receive a high quality service, so you obtain a reliable and accurate view on performance.
The most basic requirements are
- Realistic and believable “shopper” interactions (that remain a “mystery”), and
- Reports on those interactions that are designed to tell you what you need to know and are accurately completed.
Achieving these two things consistently isn't easy and certainly doesn't happen by accident. it requires high quality programme management and oversight.
How Mystery Shopping works
Interactions through all channels (in-person, telephone, online (email, live chat, video chat)) can - and usually should - be checked and tested. Typically, with Mystery Shopping for compliance, interactions are recorded, so there is a record (and evidence) of exactly what is said by staff. Recordings can be referred back to during training or other interventions, and the fact that this evidence is collected enables businesses to demonstrate the fact that they are examining their own performance thoroughly.
Performance results are normally delivered through reports which each cover an individual interaction or enquiry cycle. The reports contain questions about key compliance elements and contain scoring so that the level of compliance can be measured and compared across interactions, staff members, teams, regions and organisations, and tracked over time.
Individual reports are accessible through an online reporting platform, along with dashboards containing useful tools to help you to explore and analyse your data, and identify where to focus your energy.
(To discuss a Mystery Shopping programme for your organisation please call us now on 01392 984224, email us on connect@customerwise.co.uk or click here to book an initial discovery call.
Why Customerwise?
Customerwise has a strong track record in delivering mystery shopping programmes designed to support FCA compliance for consumer credit providers.
We work directly with car brands, car dealership groups, lenders, insurers and insurance brokers, and retailers offering credit, and we are also a preferred partner to FCA compliance specialists Product Partnerships.
Our programmes are built to help clients evidence standards, identify risk and drive improvement. We use proprietary technology to increase realism and maintain continuity across multi-stage enquiries, and we can integrate complementary approaches such as in-moment customer feedback to provide more robust oversight.
Kaizen Action Plans - a compliance "game changer"
In addition to the output that clients rightly expect from a Mystery Shopping company (reliable, in-depth feedback based on realistic interactions), we provide clients with a unique tool to help them ensure and monitor their own compliance: Kaizen Action Plans.
Kaizen is a special feature within our powerful online reporting platform, SASSIE. It helps clients to track, manage and record the resolution of issues (whether compliance-related and / or performance-related) all in one place – within the reporting platform itself.
Whenever specified issues are highlighted through a Mystery Shop interaction, Kaizen brings relevant stakeholders across the client business into a conversation, facilitates communication to resolve any issues, and then keeps a record of this resolution for future reference (e.g. to provide evidence to the FCA where action has been taken to address issues).
Kaizen helps to make Mystery Shopping programmes even more of a powerful tool for monitoring and improving compliance. It helps businesses to not just identify compliance issues, but also address them.
Customerwise is well proven and highly trusted provider of Mystery Shopping services for FCA compliance applications. We'd love to help your business to remain safe and secure in this environment of increasing regulation.
For an initial discussion about how Mystery Shopping could help your business to remain compliant and reduce risk, call 01392 984224 or email us on connect@customerwise.co.uk or click here to book an initial discovery call.