subject: Ascentys - Consumer Protection Act! I your business ready? [print this page] Ascentys - Consumer Protection Act! I your business ready?
The Consumer Protection Act due to launch in April 2011 is going to change every aspect of our business and how we deal with our consumers. It is being implemented to promote a fair, accessible and sustainable marketplace for consumer products and services and it will have an impact on everything we do as a business.
Businesses need to start by interpreting the act to their own business model and redefine all customer touch-point processes to ensure alignment to the Act as its been interpreted for your business. What financial impact is this going to have on your organisation, for example if you sell a product to a consumer they have a 7 day cooling off period, what percentage of your consumers will decide they no longer wish to have the product they purchased, request their money back and leave you with a second hand product. If this product was sent to the consumer, how will you ensure delivery back to your organisation and what will that refund process look like to ensure ease of transaction for the consumer?
Additionally, if you are a service based company, or have service based areas within your organisation (ie: Customer Service Call Centres) how are you going to ensure compliance? Living up to your promises and making sure your people don't give consumers misleading information which could lead to one of your customers using this Act against you will be vital.
If you are an organisation who has franchises, or uses resellers what actions and steps are you taking to ensure their adherence to your business processes and service ethos? This could negatively impact your sales ability into the market and therefore have major consequences to your revenue.
The CPA also states that timely performance is required in terms of servicing consumers and "removal of unavoidable delay in the performance of the service". If you are a Call Centre best practice rules dictate 80% of calls should be answered within 20 seconds if you are unable to this because of process inefficiency, poor systems, high attrition, operational issues you could be in breach and a consumer may be able to take action as a result of this "poor service". If you outsource your Call Centre what steps will you take to ensure your Outsourced Partner understands how you have interpreted the detail and how you want them to service your consumers, what steps are you taking to measure them against your requirements once defined?
If you are unsure of the impact on your business and would like to discuss this with someone, please call Ascentys on 0861 ASCENT.
We will be happy to guide your business through the process, assist with interpretation of the CPA, define your business model, redefine processes or even help map your customer journey.
