'Actions speak louder than words. All the rest is merely spin.'

In the time since reading Justin Doherty 's article in The Spectator yesterday, there appears to be growing anger in the handling of recent events with NatWest Group and wider questions on what impact it has on consumer trust in the sector. Justin's statement on reputation sums this up perfectly.

'The golden rule of reputation is that it’s what you do that matters, not what you say.?Actions speak louder than words. All the rest is merely spin.'

There is clearly a value exchange from asking your customers for feedback, listening and acting on it to drive change and build your reputation. This is already being done by many businesses through CX initiatives and metrics that, whilst making sense to those KPI'd on this performance, and shareholders, does not resonate with consumers. Furthermore, this is only one step.

Publicising this feedback to underpin the change and improvements made, in the interest of transparency, is the missing step with many businesses. What is needed is standardisation. Displaying customer feedback and reviews is too often seen as a 'tick box' exercise, rather than something that can be another driver for change. Take the following post from James York as an example:

The CMA has previously stated that?consumer spending after reading a review is in excess of ￡23bn. Current macro-economics mean that competition for that spend is ever increasing and customers want to know that they are making the right purchasing decisions. Would customers still seek confidence in what they are reading about a business if the above is that company's stance on customer feedback? To James' point, when you are genuinely passionate about it, it makes for demoralising reading.

Choosing the 'honeymoon' period of a product purchase does not reflect all the other stages of a customer's lifetime with a business. For insurance, it can't just be new business, it needs to be claims and renewals. For property, it can't just be instruction, it needs to be completion. The list goes on.

Customer opinion of a brand and what it offers cannot always be summed up into one score, especially when it is a complex purchase or one that is for a product or service that will have long term use. If a single score is used, it needs to have the option for customers to see how each stage of the consumer journey is performing. This is something that Feefo provides to businesses that use its tool to collect customer feedback. 安盛 's approach to ollecting feedback across Product, Service touchpoint and Sales Channel is one that it would be great to see become more widespread.

With the Financial Conduct Authority 's Consumer Duty coming into force in five days time, regulated businsses are being asked to question themselves on the following, with one point, in particular, standing out:

1. Are you satisfied your products and services are well designed to meet the needs of consumers in the target market, and perform as expected? What testing has been conducted??
2. Do your products or services have features that could risk harm for groups of customers with characteristics of vulnerability? If so, what changes to the design of your products and services are you making???
3. What action have you taken as a result of your fair value assessments, and how are you ensuring this action is effective in improving consumer outcomes??
4. What data, MI and other intelligence are you using to monitor the fair value of your products and services on an ongoing basis??
5. How are you testing the effectiveness of your communications? How are you acting on these results???
6. How do you adapt your communications to meet the needs of customers with characteristics of vulnerability, and how do you know these adaptions are effective???
7. What assessment have you made about whether your customer support is meeting the needs of customers with characteristics of vulnerability? What data, MI and customer feedback is being used to support this assessment??
8. How have you satisfied yourself that the quality and availability of any post-sale support you have is as good as your pre-sale support??
9. Do individuals throughout your firm – including those in control and support functions – understand their role and responsibility in delivering the Duty??
10. Have you identified the key risks to your ability to deliver good outcomes to customers and put appropriate mitigants in place??

Would it not make for great marketing and social proof to use customer feedback publicy to demonstrate how the above is being implemented? To repeat Justin's point, 'Actions speak louder than words. All the rest is merely spin.'

Now may be the time that we start to see a change in focus.