The Customer Journey

Understanding the customer journey is important to all firms, not just those who need to evidence to the regulator that they are treating customers fairly (TCF).

To understand the journey you must map out the end to end process, this helps you to identify all customer touch points and understand the potential key risks along the way. This can be done by considering the following:

1. Divide the journey into the following core theme areas.

Product design
Marketing and promotions
Sales process and advice
Application process
Provision of service
Fees and charges
Reward and remuneration
Culture
After service claims and complaints

2. Identify the key risks throughout the customer journey, capture the impact and probability of the risk materialising.

3. Identify and implement key controls to mitigate these risks, check whether they are appropriate and also if they are operating effectively.

4. Align the framework to the FCA customer outcomes:

Outcome 1: Consumers can be confident that they are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of customers is central to the corporate culture.
Outcome 2: Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market are designed to meet the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly.
Outcome 3: Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.
Outcome 4: Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances.
Outcome 5: Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have led them to expect, and the associated service is of an acceptable standard.
Outcome 6: Consumers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint.
5. Develop relevant, timely and appropriate management information, ensuring this goes to the people who need to know.

6. Align to your compliance monitoring plan, test and report any findings and recommendations to senior management.

It is important that management information (MI) can demonstrate that your firm understands root cause analysis and performance trends, and that tolerances are designed to capture the true situation as it stands.

We can help you develop the customer journey, key risk indicators, management Information and compliance monitoring, so that you can fully understand the customer outcomes.