“Companies are burying complaints processes deep on their websites, requiring details a customer may not have to hand and treating customers in a defensive and dismissive way,” Bolingford said.
Among the FMA’s other findings were: almost one in three complaints were unresolved, and of those who wanted to complain, a third thought there was no point in complaining because nothing would happen.
It also found 57% of complainants were satisfied with the handling of their complaint, while 21% were dissatisfied.
Complaining as learning
FMA director of deposit taking and insurance and advice Richard Hewes said New Zealanders’ own “she’ll be right” attitudes often held them back from complaining.
But he encouraged consumers to complain more and for financial services providers to use those complaints as a learning exercise, rather than an adversarial situation.
“Providers should learn from complaints, use it as a mechanism to review your products and services,” Hewes said.
“If you are seeing and hearing about complaints from consumers, use it as a learning opportunity – clearly there is something not quite right with your product and service, and it is a great opportunity to change it.”
Hewes said where consumers and financial service providers reach a deadlock, the provider would escalate the complaint to a disputes resolution.
He said disputes resolution providers did a “fantastic job” for consumers, are independent of financial services providers, and free of charge.
