About the author Martin Ellingham is a Senior Product Manager at Aptean. Martin's core business areas are Aptean's business feedback and complaint handling, Respond, and the advanced text analytics solution, TheySay. He has served Aptean in various roles over the past decade. For most of this period, he focused on addressing complaints in regulated markets, particularly financial services. In his current role, he is responsible for providing solutions to serve millions of end customers and consumers around the world. Resolving a credit fraud complaint can be a complicated process, especially now that financial services companies must respond to people who are not their customers. This is why claims teams will play an important role in preventing reputational damage. Being robbed is a stressful situation, even more so when it comes to credit fraud. Knowing that someone has had access to your private bank account or card can leave a lasting impression. And how this situation is resolved (or otherwise) will often play a big part in how the person involved remembers the story. The digital world has made credit fraud much more complicated. Although people are more aware of scammers and are more vigilant in their behavior online, many are still trapped. Online scams are becoming more sophisticated by the day, often using publicly available information on social media to build trust with potential victims and encourage them to share sensitive information or transfer money. Bank transfers of this type are known as authorized automatic payments (APPs) and are a particularly popular way for scammers to encourage people to give up their hard-earned money. In fact, UK customers have lost €145 million to these scams in the first half of 20181. The challenge for these victims is to recover the money, something they rely on to the banks involved to settle the issue. Imagine, however, if the bank receiving the money doesn't investigate properly or doesn't take the time to do so. The victim naturally calls to complain, but is told that nothing can be done because she is not a customer. They will just have to wait...
The rules on credit fraud complaints have changed
Losing money and having trouble getting it back is a nightmare scenario, but it has happened to a lot of people. Now, however, the enforcement rules have been changed and the grievance teams should be ready. Previously, in the case of APP credit fraud, consumers only had the right to complain to their bank, the one that had sent the money. This meant that fraud victims were dependent on communication between their bank and the bank that had received the money on behalf of the scammers. In this scenario, this company had little incentive to act effectively. After all, she wasn't risking losing a client. Since January this year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given consumers the right to direct their complaints to the bank receiving the APP, in case they feel frustrated by the changing situation. . This gives customers at each bank greater control over how credit fraud complaints are handled, even allowing them to bring the matter to the attention of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
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The new rules are an opportunity in disguise for banks.
Changes to the FCA rules are a big problem for complaint teams. Financial services companies may have thought they had a hard time resolving complaints from their own customers. Now, they are also likely to receive complaints from non-customers, and this could be a tricky task. One of the main problems is that these complaints will come from those who have little or no relationship with the company. They only want one thing: that their complaint be resolved with the return of their money. Only one result will be satisfactory, which will make the job of each customer service agent even more difficult. The problem for banks and other financial services companies (it cannot be denied that competing companies also bear this responsibility) is that their reputations can easily be affected by negative experiences with non-customers. However, on a more positive note, companies have the opportunity to improve their reputation. Complaint handling teams now have a greater ability to open a dialogue with people affected by APP credit fraud, allowing them to provide a better experience by demonstrating that they can support everyone, not just their customersHow complaints teams can effectively handle non-customer complaints.
To build a relationship with non-customers and provide a positive experience, claims teams must be able to resolve credit fraud situations as effectively as possible. It means getting the most out of every interaction, which won't happen if you don't have the right processes in place to provide that. For example, companies that are unable to track the overall journey of their customers within their company will provide a much poorer overall experience, particularly in resolving their complaints. This is already a major issue for many claims teams, a problem they need to address quickly if they are to avoid escalations. Monitoring interactions becomes even more critical when dealing with a person who is not a customer. In this scenario, each interaction and information shared with agents is a much higher percentage of trips. Therefore, it is essential that complaints teams have an overview when they need it, as they will be working on cases that are already more difficult to resolve. < p class="bordeaux-image-check">
(Image: © Image credit: picjumbo.com / Pexels) More contact with non-customers should be an opportunity for financial services companies. However, this will never be the case unless your complaint handling team has the necessary tools and support to deliver a high-quality and superior experience. These tools give banks and their teams the opportunity to seize this opportunity by providing the help victims of credit fraud need. Powerful case management software makes it easy to track customer and non-customer interactions. By providing agents with a complete overview of each case with the information they need to make real progress, the system improves the efficiency of the claims process. Therefore, complaints are resolved more quickly and victims of APP credit fraud benefit from a much better experience, one that significantly reduces the emotional stress they will undoubtedly experience. There are few positive aspects of credit fraud, but financial services companies can make sure their complaint process is part of it. With the help of complaint and case management software, they can not only provide essential support to victims of credit fraud, but also improve their business' reputation with potential future customers. Martin Ellingham, Senior Product Manager at Aptean