The Importance Of Partnerships In Effective Business Operations

So, what’s the first step for businesses planning any kind of operational change, or resolving any kind of compliance problems such as remediation exercises? To decide whether to outsource or to do it yourself.

The range of support options for financial services firms has never been greater, with AI (Artificial Intelligence) being the current hot topic and Software as a Service (SaaS) products changing the game for a wide range of compliance and control services. But these are only as effective as the ‘embedding’ of the tools, ongoing training, and cultural support in the business.

With AI, there are differences of opinion as to whether it should be adopted at all. EQ has worked with several clients who are seeing major benefits from incorporating it into their customer facing and complaint handling operations. However getting AI working for your business is a real investment in money, time, effort, and trust in the data that fuels the system.

So, what should businesses look for in a good operational partner? Some common key priorities are to have confidence and trust them, their processes, technology systems, expertise, and people. This is vital if the project is going to be successful.

As an extension of your business, any partner also has responsibilities to your end customers and supports you in your accountability to the regulators. It is this accountability that means any partnering decisions needs to scrutinise both the services on offer and the wider company culture. Any partner should share your core values and uphold the culture that your business reflects, an attitude that should be apparent regardless of the capabilities, resilience, quality, and safeguards they can otherwise provide.

Most financial services firms provide a range of products and services. In many ways it makes sense to find a partner with that same variety of capability and ongoing flexibility of solutions. When delivering a project, be it a large-scale customer contact and remediation programme, or pensions administration work such as preparing for the launch of the dashboard, it is not just about doing the bare minimum for the regulator. It is about providing the quick and effective service that customers demand.

This brings us to the technology or people debate that has been ongoing for many years now. At EQ, we think the right combination of technology and people is the key to success.

Of course, the right technology creates efficient and effective processes. In enforcing compliance as a standard, it can be invaluable, as we’ve experienced in supporting the largest scale mis-selling remediations. However, even with the best tools, there is really no match for specialist knowledge and people skills when working on more complex products such as pensions or historical remediation cases.

Given the wide variety of products, with a range of history and applicable regulation, as well as the history of each customer, you always benefit from an expert knowledge of the options plus the personal touch of good customer care. We have thousands of examples of direct feedback from the end customers of our clients.

Customers thank our staff for taking the time to listen and helping them understand products that are so vital to financial health. Be this support with forbearance and payment options when people are struggling financially, when they have a complaint about a product or service, or when they are planning for their future. This can’t be done by machines or automated one-size-fits-all work. What makes the difference, is the specialist knowledge, attitude and time that people give.