Complaints – More Benefit, Less Grief

You already have a complaint program in place. If you get a complaint passed to you from your regulator or the Better Business Bureau, you handle it. If you haven't formalized the process, starting with a policy and ending with an analysis to learn from, then you haven't used this as a tool or to its potential.

Complaints and inquiries from your customers are not only reflections on your products and services; they are also indicators of who may leave you as a customer tomorrow. Complaints about banks and their service is also important enough that each regulatory agency has a department to handle them, and for the Dodd-Frank Act to impose requirements addressing complaints and your responses to them. Complaint management is a part of an effective compliance management system.

• What reactions do you get when you notify customers of an increased fee? These reactions are a barometer of customer satisfaction.
• Do you have a method to verify that claims under Regs E and Z are investigated and timely paid?
• Are there complaints that a lender isn't treating all customers equally?
• Have you noticed an increase in sales of a new add-on service your bank offers through a third party, and an increase in cancellations as well?

How you handle such complaints and others like them can significantly affect your examinations for CRA, fair lending and compliance. Your institution should have a formal and centralized system to both investigate and respond to them. Examiners will ask about the outcome of your complaints investigations, and they keep their own list on complaints received by regulators to check against your records. One lender had to pay a consumer $90,300 over a $17,000 debt because it failed to follow FCRA investigation requirements. What your bank may see as a minor complaint can have major consequences if mishandled.

Many laws and regulations actually require that you handle complaints in a timely manner. RESPA, Reg. Z, Reg. E and more impose rules that you must follow. Most importantly, handling complaints is expected in today's banking world.

In this webinar we'll discuss:

• Why you should have a Complaints and Inquiries Policy
• NOTE: Your materials include a draft policy and procedures
• Who should investigate and respond to complaints
• Which complaints need to be responded to under regulatory timelines
• The differences between complaints from a customer, from the Better Business Bureau and from your regulator
• Common complaints the regulators are seeing, what regulators tell your customer, and how you should respond
• Complaints that can be handled on the spot, and those that may need to be escalated
• A formula for providing written responses to your customer
• Best practices in the industry for complaint and inquiry procedures
• What the Dodd-Frank Act expects in handling complaints

Who Should Attend: Those who receive complaints and inquiries, Tellers, New Accounts, Lenders, Branch Managers, receptionists, call centers and those who resolve and respond to complaints.