What is Voice of the Customer (VoC) all about? And should a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business have a VoC Programme?

27 February 2023

A Voice of the Customer (VoC) programme is a method used by businesses and charitable organisations to gather and analyse feedback from their customers. The aim of a VoC programme is to understand the needs, preferences, and opinions of customers in order to improve the overall customer experience. By collecting customer feedback, companies can understand what they’re doing well as well as identify areas for improvement. The insight gathered can help organisations to develop new products and services based on gaps in the market identified by understanding customer needs and create stronger relationships with their customers. A VoC programme helps both the organisation and the customer – as customers know that they’re being listened to. 

Voice of the Customer (VoC) programmes are becoming increasingly popular in the world of direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses. These programmes allow companies to listen to and understand the needs and preferences of their customers, which can provide valuable insights for improving business operations and driving growth. If you’re thinking of setting up a VoC, it’s worth understanding both the benefits you’ll gain and effort you’ll be required to put in to set up the programme and to maintain it. In this blog we’ll look at the benefits. Next week we’ll tackle how to set up a VoC. 

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The Consumer Duty From The Financial Conduct Authority – Will It Make Any Difference In Ensuring That Customers Are Treated Fairly?

15 February 2023

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its new Consumer Duty in July 2022 and since then there’s been a steady stream of content generated on the subject, including from the FCA (see below), but the real question is: will it make any difference to end customers of firms regulated by the FCA when the requirements kick in from July 2023? 

The FCA (formerly Financial Services Authority – FSA) first published guidance on Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) almost 20 years ago and continued to update that guidance on a regular basis. The requirements and recommendations were updated before the FCA went out to consultation on a new Consumer Duty. The finalised guidance on the Consumer Duty was published in July ’22. With this new Duty, the FCA has stated that “[the] new duty sets higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services and requires firms to put their customers’ needs first”, which strongly implies that they’re not overly satisfied by the efforts of the financial services sector so far in Treating Customers Fairly. 

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Face to Face Versus eLearning

16 January 2023

We were recently asked if we provided an eLearning version of our TRUST: Recognising Vulnerabilities and Making Reasonable Adjustments training sessions. Our enquirer really liked the course outline and was excited about the benefits it could bring their team, business and customers. The only issue was that they’d been asked to find an eLearning solution. Which led to a really interesting discussion about whether the delivery of the course content impacts on the effectiveness and long-term benefit of training. It was such an interesting debate, I thought I’d share it here.

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Vulnerability In The UK

10 January 2023

A worrying stat from the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Lives 2022 Survey was that about 2 in 5 vulnerable customers are not being recognised until it’s too late. So we’re welcoming 2023 in with a mission to ensure all businesses and organisations are able to both recognise and support their customers, supporters and team members who may find themselves in a vulnerable situation and knock that number down significantly from an unacceptable 40%.

But who are they? 

What vulnerable circumstances might they find themselves in? 

How can we tell?

How can we help?

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