RG 271 Compliance: Does Your Business Pass the Test?

In place in Australia since October 5th this year, RG 271 should definitely not be taken lightly. Failure to comply can lead to both civil and monetary consequences, including fines of up to A$11 million, not to mention the reputational damage that non-compliance can cause. But, it’s still early days and some businesses are struggling to get to grips with the guidance, trying to reassess their current way of managing complaints to mitigate against non compliance.

So, in light of this challenge, how do you know if your business is RG 271 compliant or not? What are the boxes you need to be ticking for RG 271 compliance and what are the questions you should be asking of your business? It’s easier to digest if you break it down into three main areas: process, technical and team.

Below is our simple RG 271 compliance checklist detailing the questions you must answer to assess if your business is compliant in these three critical areas.

Dispute Resolution Process

• Do you have a well-defined, understandable, standardised Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) process in place, which covers the efficient and effective triage, escalation and resolution of complaints across all lines of your business? Does it cover all stakeholders, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for everyone involved?

• Is your complaint handling policy not only easy-to-understand but accessible and readily available on your website? And, does it outline the specific IDR process that your customer can expect to go through?

• Are there clearly defined SLAs in place, with specified escalation points for when SLAs are about to be breached?

• Is your team adequately resourced to manage any peaks and troughs, with checks and balances to ensure fast and reasonable outcomes? And, do you have KPIs regarding expected outcomes for both customers and staff?

Technical and Complaint Management System Setup

• Do you capture all the information required under RG 271 and is it easy for your team to record this data?

• Are your complaints centralised, with complaint information accessible to all stakeholders in your business? Does your existing system provide oversight of your entire complaints portfolio?

• Are there alerts in place to notify the business about potential breaches, systemic issues and vulnerable customers?

• Does your complaint management system suit the nature, scale and complexity of the complaints coming into your business? Is it an effective system for recording, tracking and resolving the complaint specific to your organisation?

• Do you have the right metrics, reporting mechanisms and capabilities to monitor your IDR process? And, can you quickly and easily gather valuable insight from your complaints data?

Complaint Handling Team

Do you provide comprehensive training, not only on IDR standards and requirements, but on identifying and supporting vulnerable customers too? And, is your team trained-up in how to triage and resolve complaints?

• Does your team have the right tools and information to empower them to resolve complaints as consistently and effectively as possible?

• Is there a process or mechanism in place to provide constructive feedback to the team, helping to identify training opportunities and best practices?

It’s a combination of all these factors that help to achieve RG 271 compliance. But just how much work do you still have to do? First and foremost, it’s imperative to look at where you’re starting from, identify any gaps and then make the necessary changes to address those shortcomings.

Check out our Buyer’s Guide for Australian Financial Services organisations. We’ve also devised an interactive RG 271 compliance calculator to help you identify any particular compliance weaknesses within your business. Both are a good starting point when it comes to checking just how compliant you are—helping you to assess exactly where you are, where you need to be, and the changes you need to make to get there.

For more information on how Aptean’s complaint management system can help you on your RG 271 compliance journey, contact us today.