Multi-Channel Customer Communications Platform Enables Financial Organizations
to Quickly and Efficiently Meet UK Financial Services Authority's Regulatory
Requirements
LONDON, 2012-12-10 23:48 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoundBite Communications (Nasdaq:SDBT) today announced a complaints solution for financial services organisations striving to meet the Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulatory and compliance requirements. The FSA, in reaction to a large number of complaints surrounding potential mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), has devised a set of obligations and timelines for financial services companies.
PPI are insurance products offered and sold in connection with loans, credit cards and mortgages by financial services companies as a way to protect their consumers who would otherwise fall behind on payments as a result of sickness, injury or unemployment.
The FSA has determined that financial services companies had routinely mis-sold PPI products throughout a number of years and has declared that consumers who have been mis-sold these products need to be compensated. The FSA has also established timelines for this compensation process.
A September 2012 FSA report showed the number of complaints involving general insurance and pure protection increase by 99% and of that product group, payment protection insurance accounted for the vast majority of claims.
The number of potential claims for PPI compensations has created a large, outbound customer communications need. Financial services companies need to proactively manage the incoming complaints as well as notify consumers who have not registered a complaint but may have one. Companies are expected to manage the customer contact process and keep within the FSA timelines for handling the complaints. The challenges raised by this are many and varied and include dialing customers manually, which is extremely inefficient, handling claims where the information is incomplete, as well as increasing contact centre staff to handle larger call volumes and controlling the associated expense.
After the Financial Services companies have conducted an initial identification phase to identify both the consumers who may be potential complainants and existing complainants. SoundBite's solution helps financial services organisations to manage the complaints quickly and efficiently during the process:
-- Contact - Companies employ the SoundBite solution to contact complainants, verify right parties and initiate conversations with complaint handlers in PPI contact centres. Notifying customers as to the complaint status during the case handling process can avoid or significantly reduce inbound calls. -- Evaluate - Companies use SoundBite to contact complainants to gather missing or additional information which could impact case resolution. -- Resolve - Companies notify customers of case resolution outcome using SoundBite's multi-channel communications platform.
"Complaints handling is a key aspect of regulatory monitoring," stated Jay Reilly, Managing Director of SoundBite Communications, Ltd. "Ineffective complaint handling can fuel negative public perception of the financial companies and invoke regulatory action. Providing a solution which can allow financial services companies to better manage the regulatory and communications challenges around complaints ultimately delivers a better customer experience and satisfaction level for the consumer."
SoundBite's secure, multi-channel cloud-based platform enables cross-channel interactions that drive results-driven communications for clients across multiple industries. This unified platform allows its clients to minimize solution acquisition costs while providing a fully secure, reliable and cost-effective solution. Underscoring the company's information security commitment in respect to its financial services clients, and solidifying its reputation as an industry leader, SoundBite has received certification as a Level 1 Service Provider compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).
Please feel free to download SoundBite's recently released whitepaper on the benefits of cloud-based computing titled: Customer Data and Proactive Customer Communication Services.
For more information about SoundBite's offerings for financial services companies, please visit: http://www.soundbite.com/industries/financial-services.
About SoundBite Communications
SoundBite Communications is a cloud-based customer experience management company with deep expertise in mobile marketing, proactive customer care, and collections/payments solutions. More than 450 global end-clients, including 50 Fortune 500 companies, leverage our proactive multi-channel communications and preference management platforms to power 2.5 billion personalized and compliant customer interactions annually across the full consumer lifecycle. Visit SoundBite.com and follow us on Twitter for more information.
SoundBite is a registered service mark of SoundBite Communications, Inc.
The SoundBite Communications, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4393
CONTACT: UK/Europe Contact: Jay Reilly SoundBite Communications UK Ltd. +44 (0)778 779 3852 jreilly@soundbite.com www.SoundBite.com
IR & Media Contact: Lynn Ricci SoundBite Communications +1 781-897-2696 lricci@soundbite.com www.SoundBite.com
LONDON, 2012-12-10 23:48 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoundBite Communications (Nasdaq:SDBT) today announced a complaints solution for financial services organisations striving to meet the Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulatory and compliance requirements. The FSA, in reaction to a large number of complaints surrounding potential mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), has devised a set of obligations and timelines for financial services companies.
PPI are insurance products offered and sold in connection with loans, credit cards and mortgages by financial services companies as a way to protect their consumers who would otherwise fall behind on payments as a result of sickness, injury or unemployment.
The FSA has determined that financial services companies had routinely mis-sold PPI products throughout a number of years and has declared that consumers who have been mis-sold these products need to be compensated. The FSA has also established timelines for this compensation process.
A September 2012 FSA report showed the number of complaints involving general insurance and pure protection increase by 99% and of that product group, payment protection insurance accounted for the vast majority of claims.
The number of potential claims for PPI compensations has created a large, outbound customer communications need. Financial services companies need to proactively manage the incoming complaints as well as notify consumers who have not registered a complaint but may have one. Companies are expected to manage the customer contact process and keep within the FSA timelines for handling the complaints. The challenges raised by this are many and varied and include dialing customers manually, which is extremely inefficient, handling claims where the information is incomplete, as well as increasing contact centre staff to handle larger call volumes and controlling the associated expense.
After the Financial Services companies have conducted an initial identification phase to identify both the consumers who may be potential complainants and existing complainants. SoundBite's solution helps financial services organisations to manage the complaints quickly and efficiently during the process:
-- Contact - Companies employ the SoundBite solution to contact complainants, verify right parties and initiate conversations with complaint handlers in PPI contact centres. Notifying customers as to the complaint status during the case handling process can avoid or significantly reduce inbound calls. -- Evaluate - Companies use SoundBite to contact complainants to gather missing or additional information which could impact case resolution. -- Resolve - Companies notify customers of case resolution outcome using SoundBite's multi-channel communications platform.
"Complaints handling is a key aspect of regulatory monitoring," stated Jay Reilly, Managing Director of SoundBite Communications, Ltd. "Ineffective complaint handling can fuel negative public perception of the financial companies and invoke regulatory action. Providing a solution which can allow financial services companies to better manage the regulatory and communications challenges around complaints ultimately delivers a better customer experience and satisfaction level for the consumer."
SoundBite's secure, multi-channel cloud-based platform enables cross-channel interactions that drive results-driven communications for clients across multiple industries. This unified platform allows its clients to minimize solution acquisition costs while providing a fully secure, reliable and cost-effective solution. Underscoring the company's information security commitment in respect to its financial services clients, and solidifying its reputation as an industry leader, SoundBite has received certification as a Level 1 Service Provider compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).
Please feel free to download SoundBite's recently released whitepaper on the benefits of cloud-based computing titled: Customer Data and Proactive Customer Communication Services.
For more information about SoundBite's offerings for financial services companies, please visit: http://www.soundbite.com/industries/financial-services.
About SoundBite Communications
SoundBite Communications is a cloud-based customer experience management company with deep expertise in mobile marketing, proactive customer care, and collections/payments solutions. More than 450 global end-clients, including 50 Fortune 500 companies, leverage our proactive multi-channel communications and preference management platforms to power 2.5 billion personalized and compliant customer interactions annually across the full consumer lifecycle. Visit SoundBite.com and follow us on Twitter for more information.
SoundBite is a registered service mark of SoundBite Communications, Inc.
The SoundBite Communications, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4393
CONTACT: UK/Europe Contact: Jay Reilly SoundBite Communications UK Ltd. +44 (0)778 779 3852 jreilly@soundbite.com www.SoundBite.com
IR & Media Contact: Lynn Ricci SoundBite Communications +1 781-897-2696 lricci@soundbite.com www.SoundBite.com
© 2012 GlobeNewswire
