Regulatory requirements aimed at protecting and helping customers do not necessarily translate to better engagement with consumers, according to new research by Australia-wide Business Training (abt).
The survey was conducted by Business Research Associates and measured how financial services businesses viewed their own performance regarding people skills in a number of areas.
According to the survey, firms placed a great deal of emphasis on ensuring their staff were well trained to meet the numerous regulatory requirements that are in force in the industry, sometimes at the expense of other skills focused on customer service.
Regulatory and compliance skills were given the highest performance score in the survey, at 7.9 out of 10. In contrast, customer service skills rated 6.3, and business development skills 6.5.
“Sixty-two per cent of firms rated their customer service skill set as 6 or less out of 10, while 52 per cent of firms rated their business development skills at that level.”
abt chief executive officer Larry Gould said the right combination of tools and skills had been mastered by few retail financial services firms.
“Looking at the people skills side of things, part of the reason seems to be the challenges in the skill set and type of people who are needed to make it work,” he said.
