There has been a “big shift” in cases where the Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) independent assessor has had to make recommendations or issued learning points to the regulator following complaints about its service.
The independent assessor (IA) found the number of complaints about FOS for the financial year 2021/22 which led to the issuing of recommendations or learning points increased more than 20 percentage points since the start of the pandemic.
The assessor also concluded that communication and timeliness should continue to be the main area of focus to drive improvements in the FOS with seven in 10 service complaints related to these two areas.
However, professionalism and staff attitude were very rarely the main focus of the complaint and customers were generally not complaining about these issues.
Starting on the backfoot
Overall FOS resolved 218,740 cases in 2021-22, 1.9% (4,131) of those customers complained about the service and only 0.3% (568) remained unhappy and escalated their complaint to the IA which were then investigated.
The report acknowledged that complaints referred to the IA represented 14% of all service complaints and the service still had “significant” backlogs and delays due to the pandemic.
Consequently, the IA said customer journey and level of satisfaction tended to start on the backfoot, having to wait a significant time for cases to be allocated at each stage of the process.
The assessor added that while the FOS has reduced case backlogs, it still has some way to go to ensure a fast and efficient service from the start, but the assessor pleased to see this was part of the strategic measures FOS has put in place.
Of the complaints that the IA found to be unsatisfactory, 70% related to concerns about communication and timeliness.
Of the reviews where the IA found communication to be unsatisfactory, they revealed they made recommendations and or learning points on 70%, which highlighted that the service has failed to adequately put things right in the vast majority of cases.
The IA revealed that on multiple occasions it had seen cases put on hold, but customers had not been given a detailed explanation as to why.
On timeliness, the IA added the data continued to show there was a need to address the backlogs and to provide customers with the fast and efficient service they expect – at the very least customers should be given realistic timescales and be updated before these expire.
Waiting over a year
One critical area the IA said the service might reconsider is its approach on is jurisdiction issues.
According to the IA, it cannot be right that a customer has to wait lengthy periods (on some occasions over a year) to be told their case does not fall within the service’s remit.
To manage customers’ expectations, and the customer journey as a whole, an early indication of this likely outcome should be given to customers at the very least.
The IA added that while they understood that the pandemic and high demand has led to backlogs, until these issues are fully resolved by the service it will continue to be on the backfoot when addressing service complaints.
But the IA found that adequacy of investigation was the single most complained about issue, with the IA adding the most common complaint they see from customers is that the service has not addressed all the issues raised.