Glue Reply unveils their new consulting service for implementing FCA Consumer Duty

5th September 2023

Glue Reply, the Reply company specialising in outcome focused strategy and enterprise architecture, has unveiled their new service based on compliance testing and a user-centric approach. This seeks to bridge the gap between organisational FCA implementation and good consumer experience.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Consumer Duty is an important aspect of the regulatory framework that governs financial services in the UK. It outlines the key areas of responsibility for businesses towards their consumers, ensuring that they are treated fairly and transparently. 

With Glue Reply’s deep expertise and knowledge in helping its clients succeed by turning strategy into tangible solutions and vision into practical outcomes, their new service draws on compliance testing to identify gaps in policies and procedures, and uses strategies to overcome unanticipated issues. Moreover, Glue Reply’s consulting service also incorporates and emphasises the need for user-centred design (UCD) principles. 

This essential measure ensures compliance with the FCA Consumer Duty by considering the user experience throughout the process. Thus, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights about their customers’ requirements and expectations. This in turn can be effective in strengthening trust between consumers and businesses.

Using a three-step testing strategy, Glue Reply’s consulting service focuses on testing current policies and processes, data compliance and consumer experience testing. By harnessing these tenets, it can reveal where there are potential flaws and allow for the creation of a bespoke plan to fix individual needs in a structured and semantic method. 

Moreover, Glue Reply’s framework will enhance consumer protection and provide greater confidence with regards to FCA Consumer Duty changes. This is because the service expertly addresses issues by putting users at the heart of it and also provides a compass to manage the risks associated with a company’s products and services. This ensures that businesses can continue providing appropriate support to customers by engaging them for research and testing, whilst also improving efficiency and reducing costs.

John Sidhu, Glue Reply Partner adds “Whilst the first deadline for Consumer Duty compliance has passed, many of in-scope organisations delivered a superficial level of compliance and recognise that a more holistic approach is required to meet the spirit of compliance and deliver the expectations of consumers.” 

By taking a strategic approach to Consumer Duty there is also an opportunity for genuine business differentiation. Glue Reply’s newest consultation service can foster Net Promotor Scores (NPS) and external trust measures for organisations, which in turn can lead to greater customer loyalty.