What you need to know about handling complaints

Fair, timely and effective complaint handling makes good sense – from customer, compliance and commercial perspectives.

According to research from the University of Newcastle and SOCAP, Australia and New Zealand’s peak body for complaints handlers, effective management of complaints can have an ROI of up to 1000%.

Regulation is bringing about change for insurers in this sphere, with the key documents being the Australian Standard, the relevant ASIC Regulatory Guide and the General Insurance Code of Practice.

Comprehensive reviews of the Regulatory Guide and the Code has resulted in some significant changes for insurers, including:

• the reduction of the overall complaint handling timeframe from 45 to 30 calendar days,
• changes to the current formal, two-stage process and
• increased data requirements.

Peter Plustwik has been working in complaint handling within the insurance industry for the better part of 12 years.

Currently, he is Dispute Resolution Manager at Lloyd’s Australia and has been a SOCAP Board member for the past 5 years.

In this video, he speaks with ANZIIF content writer Anna Game-Lopata about what it takes to drive a culture of fair, timely and effective complaint handling in the new environment.