HR’s impact on customer satisfaction

March 26, 2008

I’ve just been reading an article in People Management about a Financial Services Authority (FSA) scheme called Treating Customers Fairly (TCF). The FSA is a company that has statutory authority over the financial services industry (e.g. mortgage and pensions providers, loan and insurance companies and banks), and part of its remit is to enforce certain conditions that financial services companies must meet to comply with their legal obligations and operate ethically.

The TCF scheme was introduced to ensure consumers buying services from companies regulated by the FSA are treated fairly in their purchases. The scheme has six required outcomes for consumers including confidence that the product they are buying is targeted to their needs, receiving clear and consistent information and advice at every stage, and being able to change providers and make a complaint without unreasonable barriers if required.

Firms in this scheme have until December to be able to show that they have the right internal structures in place to ensure customers are treated fairly and not mis-sold products or services. The FSA feels that implementing these structures and ensuring that the outcomes can be achieved will be heavily influenced by the human resources provision within companies. This is because the fair and appropriate treatment of customers is down to employees, and cannot be achieved with systems and processes alone. The TCF message needs to be embedded within the culture of the business and the attitudes of all employees, and HR can have a major impact on this. A consultant that was involved in the development of the scheme found that the most successful companies in carrying out the TCF objectives were those who involved HR from the start to embed the principles in the working of the organisation.

Whilst this is a scheme relating to the financial services sector, I think some of it could be really useful for a lot of companies, especially with such a large proportion now being part of the ‘services sector’. Companies that provide a service need to have customer interests as the central importance, and this needs to form part of all aspects of people management, from recruitment of the right people with the right attitudes to setting expectations and delivering on company values. Customer relations is something that is quite high on the agenda in my organisation at the moment and perhaps a scheme similar to the TCF one would be something to consider, and could also be useful in a lot of other organisations – the objectives would simply need to be adapted to suit the particular organisation and customer group. This could then be worked into people management practices such as handbooks, policies, recruitment, induction and development activities, performance management structures and communications practices, to ensure that all managers and employees buy into the same vision of how customers should be treated.

Definitely food for thought!

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Posted by hrgirl | Filed Under Employee Relations, Policies and Procedures 

Comments

3 Responses to “HR’s impact on customer satisfaction”

  1. Tina Russell on March 26th, 2008 3:31 pm

    I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.

    Tina Russell

  2. Jason Rakowski on March 26th, 2008 3:43 pm

    Good Layout and design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .

    Jason Rakowski

  3. hrgirl on April 2nd, 2008 9:57 am

    Thanks very much for these comments!

    HR Girl

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