10 Ways to Navigate RG 271 with a Complaints Management System

Regulatory Guide 271 (RG 271) set out by The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is forcing financial services businesses to assess how they can become compliant ahead of the October 2021 deadline. We’ve highlighted 10 ways Aptean Respond, our complaint management system, can help your organization put the right processes and procedures in place to underpin robust compliance.

 1.      Recording all complaints

A consumer or small business does not have to explicitly state the word ‘complaint’ or ‘dispute’, or even put their complaint in writing, to trigger an IDR Complaint under RG 271. Firms are now required to capture and deal with every dissatisfaction that is raised by a customer. Respond is ideally placed to do this, representing a single, centralized system that manages the recording and processing of all complaints received.

 2.      Acknowledging all complaints

Financial firms need to acknowledge receipt of every complaint within 24 hours or one business day of receiving it, taking into account preferred communication methods when doing so. Respond helps you meet this requirement by ensuring adherence to timelines. Tasks and actionable steps in the system workflow, track service levels and customer preferences, prompting users to take action before service levels are breached.

 3.      Providing a written response to IDR complaints

RG 271 is very specific about what exactly written responses to a complaint should contain. The Respond complaint management system provides standard email and letter templates, ensuring that all required contact, resolution and potential escalation details are included in the response. Real-time quality assurance checks can be implemented to check the response before it’s sent.

 4.      Speed of response compliance

A firm must now provide an IDR response to a standard complainant no later than 30 calendar days after receiving the initial complaint, with mandated timescales varying depending on the type of complaint. Respond’s pre-configured workflow and tasks ensure these timelines are adhered to.

 5.      Resolutions within five days

Prior to RG 271, businesses didn’t have to provide a written response to the complainant if the complaint was resolved within five days. Now firms must confirm the complainant is satisfied that a complaint has been resolved before marking it so. A written response is also required in certain circumstances. The pre-configurable nature of Respond helps ensure that these requirements are met, implementing workflows and user alerts for extra reassurance.

 6.      Providing additional assistance and identifying vulnerable customers

RG 271 stipulates that firms must proactively identify customers who might need additional assistance. Respond comes with sentiment analysis built-in, giving users the means to detect vulnerable customers with the system’s configurable data capture enabling the identification and recording of those people who need additional assistance.

 7.      Reviewing processes

The new guidelines require businesses to continuously review the effectiveness of IDR communications and the adequacy of IDR resources, as well as the measuring and monitoring of complaints resolved at first point-of-contact. Respond automatically marks complaints resolved at first point-of-contact, with the Survey module garnering feedback from complainants to help review the effectiveness of the end-to-end complaints journey.

 8.      In-depth reporting

RG 271 is very specific about what exactly financial services firms should be reporting on when it comes to IDR. Respond provides an extensive and highly configurable reporting tool to fulfil these detailed requirements, enabling businesses to collect and analyse the mandated data at regular intervals.  Respond’s Financial Services template comes with these report templates out-of-the-box.

 9.      Clear accountability

Boards must set clear lines of accountability for complaint handling under the new guidelines, including the identification and subsequent addressing of systemic issues. A firm’s dispute resolution system must include early identification and resolution of these systemic issues, something Respond supports natively. Respond’s drillable dashboards and reporting module let you get to the root cause of customer complaints, spot trends and correct underlying issues.

 10.   Ongoing quality assurance

RG 271 requires firms to carry out regular and ongoing quality assurance of complaint management activity by both front-line and specialist complaints teams. Respond’s Quality Assurance module provides the ability to seamlessly and systematically identify cases that require a quality check, prompting the business to take appropriate action in real-time and retrospectively.

While the new requirements might seem daunting to many financial services organizations, a technology-driven, integrated approach is the optimum route for businesses to take. Aptean’s complaint management system, Respond, manages the end-to-end customer complaint journey by putting the right processes and procedures in place.

By employing this specialized technology, you can fulfil the duty of care that all financial services organizations must uphold throughout every customer interaction while achieving full compliance with RG 271. To discover how compliant your business is, use our free online RG 271 Compliance Calculator today. If you’re looking for a complaints management solution to help your business achieve RG 271 compliance, contact us, we’d love to talk!