Four Reasons a Web-Based Complaint Management System Is the Way To Go

Most financial services leaders agree: the public cloud is the way forward.

91% of executives who took part in Capgemini's 2023 World Cloud Report survey said a cloud-first approach is critical for achieving growth through greater operational efficiency and superior customer service.

So, since addressing complaints swiftly and resolving them satisfactorily are the cornerstones of standout customer service, investing in cloud-based customer complaint management software should be high on your firm's list of strategic priorities.

To help you build your business case for this critical software, we’ve detailed the four key benefits of using a web-based complaint management system. We'll also take a look at how complaint management software can make your firm more flexible, agile and adaptable.

1. Cloud-Based Customer Complaint Management Is More Secure

Despite what the "public" in "public cloud" might suggest, cloud-based customer complaint software is more secure than on-premise alternatives, for two reasons:

1. Cloud-Based Software Vendors Have More Resources

Firstly, while your organisation is in charge of system security in an on-premise deployment, your vendor takes on the responsibility in a cloud-based scenario. Public cloud providers have to take security extremely seriously, because their businesses depend on it. So, they employ thousands of security experts and invest billions in research and development.

Cloud-based complaint management software vendors' businesses and reputations are similarly at stake. As a result, they also have dedicated staff continuously monitoring their systems, spotting and fixing configuration errors, and working to identify and close security loopholes.

Of course, as a regulated firm, you remain responsible for security breaches, so it's important to carry out thorough vendor due diligence and have robust internal policies in place. That said, working with cloud-based complaint software means you have several thousands more pairs of eyes looking out for potential vulnerabilities. And, crucially, it means you have access to advanced tools, resources and expertise you might not have in house.

2. Cloud-Based Software Is More Resilient

The second reason cloud-based complaint management software is more secure than on-prem deployments is that practices such as decentralisation and redundancies mean data is more resilient in the cloud.

In an on-prem scenario, the upfront and ongoing cost of infrastructure (we'll discuss this in more detail in a few paragraphs) means your IT team typically has limited resources to work with. As a result, there's often a single point of failure. A faulty cable or insufficient RAM can take the whole system offline.

Economies of scale aren't an issue in cloud-based scenarios, so it's standard practice to store data in several different physical locations and make multiple backups. This reduces risk. Should there be a natural disaster in one data centre, for instance, cloud-based software can still continue to operate and no data is lost.

2. Cloud-Based Complaint Management Software Is More Cost-Effective

On-premise deployments aren't just a security headache, they also come with significant upfront and ongoing costs, including:

• Servers

• Buying or leasing physical storage space

• Utility bills

• Specialised staff

• Audits, patches and upgrades

While estimates vary widely, the outlay can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars. And that's before you factor in "hidden" costs such as procurement admin, depreciation, unplanned downtime and technical debt.

These costs are all reduced or eliminated in cloud-based scenarios. Everything is on the vendor's servers, and one monthly or annual subscription fee covers infrastructure, ongoing maintenance and customer support.

Equally, because public cloud providers typically have consumption-based pricing, software vendors also have lower upfront and maintenance costs. These savings, as well as the economies of scale from selling a specialised product to thousands of customers, are reflected in the subscription fee.

The lower cost of a web-based complaint management system means it may be easier to get sign-off from senior management. You'll also have more room in your budget to invest in other key areas of your business, such as product development, marketing and sales.

3. A Web-Based Complaint Management System Is Easier To Scale

Savings aside, the flexibility inherent in cloud-based infrastructure means it's easier to scale a web-based complaint management system to suit changing requirements.

Imagine you owned a Land Rover. The car comfortably seats five people: two in the front and three in the back. As a family of five, this is perfect for most of your travel needs. But, if your in-laws were to stay the weekend, or your neighbour were to ask you to give their kids a lift because they can't make the school pickup, you wouldn't have the capacity to accommodate the extra passengers.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you were to start driving less often—because you decide to cycle to work, for example—you'd still have to maintain the car, buy motor insurance and pay for the other costs of car ownership. In comparison, if you were to rent: the rental fee would cover everything: use, maintenance, insurance and road tax; you'd pay for a car only when you needed one; and, you could choose the type and size of vehicle that best suited the specific situation: a roomy SUV for a family road-trip or a more compact car if you just wanted to nip out to the shops.

Cloud-based complaint management software works in a similar way. Most vendors offer different packages priced according to how much of their resources you'll be using. This means you can start small and upgrade as you grow.

Cloud-based infrastructure can also dynamically scale resources up and down depending on demand, a characteristic called elasticity. This keeps web-based software stable. Just as a rubber band expands or contracts to accommodate an object's thickness, cloud resources can scale up when usage spikes, and scale back when there's less activity.

This means the software's performance won't dip if your complaint volumes increase. Nor will your software vendor have to charge you for resources you don't need during times when you have fewer complaints.

4. Cloud-Based Complaint Management Software Is More User-Friendly and Accessible

With ever more people working remotely—according to the Office of National Statistics' latest data, 44% of UK workers work from home or have hybrid working arrangements—it's increasingly important for software to be accessible from anywhere.

And while it's possible to access on-prem software remotely, this is a technically complex process. By contrast, cloud-based software has remote access capabilities baked in—all you need is an internet connection, username and password.

But that's only one of several compelling reasons why web-based complaint management software is more user-friendly and accessible than an on-prem deployment. Just as significantly:

• You can collaborate more easily. Because data storage is centralised and hosted in the cloud, it's possible for teams to share knowledge and work together in real time, whether they're all in the same building or spread across three continents.

• Your organisation will have fewer silos. Centralised, cloud-hosted data management also enables a single source of truth: one readily-available repository of trusted and accurate data. This gives you better visibility into your complaints function and increases efficiency.

• You can deliver consistently good customer service. Cloud-based software allows you to cover all the bases, addressing complaints effectively regardless of whether they come via email, phone, social media or another communication channel.

• You'll have a simpler time maintaining and troubleshooting your software. The vendor pushes updates and upgrades to all customers simultaneously, without needing to send a team to their offices, meaning you always have the latest software version. Similarly, a good cloud-based vendor's support team will be able to access your configuration remotely, so they can fix technical issues more quickly.

• You'll have greater flexibility. The public cloud's service-oriented architecture—where standalone applications offer specialised capabilities—means cloud-based software is interoperable by design. As a result, you're not locked into a specific vendor. You can choose the complaint management software that best suits your requirements, safe in the knowledge it can integrate with other business-critical software in your tech stack.

Future-Proof Your Success With a Web-Based Complaint Management System

Digital-first brands have raised the bar for customer service across the board. An IPSOS report calls this "liquid expectations," a phenomenon in which "...the service provided by Amazon one-click ordering or Apple’s Genius Bar affects the way consumers expect to deal with their bank."

This fluidity means it's time to rethink the way you view customer service, including complaints handling. It's no longer enough to be the best in your sector. More and more, if Amazon can resolve complaints in minutes, customers expect similar efficiency when they interact with you, even though financial services is completely different.

Regulations such as the Financial Conduct Authority's Consumer Duty and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's Regulatory Guide 271 have raised the stakes further, obliging firms to make customer support as accessible as possible and imposing specific response times.

The bottom line is: tackling complaints swiftly and to customers' satisfaction is more important than ever. And in a tightly regulated environment, not any software will cut it.

Financial services is a specialised sector, so you need a specialised tool. A tool that's secure, scalable, flexible and designed to make the process as straightforward as possible for both your customers and your staff. We've built Aptean Respond, our web-based complaints management system, with these attributes in mind.

The rules and regulatory requirements that apply to your firm are embedded into our platform's automated workflows. So, in addition to saving you time, Aptean Respond makes the process compliant by default. You can also see key stats at a glance, including the number of active complaints, average resolution time and individual complaints handlers' performance. Best of all, you will find the most common reasons for customer complaints. This gives you valuable data you can use to identify and fix process, product and service weaknesses.

Clients report Respond has reduced resolution time by 9 days, with a 75% decrease in active complaints and 92.3% fewer FOS referrals. Interested in learning more? Book a FREE, no-obligation demo.