The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will begin enforcing new requirements for consumer complaints management involving all financial services companies including banks, credit unions, mortgage companies and debt collections agencies.

In the year and a half since opening its doors, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has hired more than 1,000 staffers, collected 90,000 consumer complaints, and begun supervising many of the 153 banks under its authority. The fledgling agency—a product of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul—released its most ambitious new policy on Jan. 10: a set of rules that will shape the future of mortgage lending. Full story…

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-10/the-consumer-finance-watchdog-is-having-an-impact

SOURCE: Bloomberg Businessweek

Got Complaints?

This CNBC article provides a Q&A list for consumers who need to complain to a company about a product or service. Click here for the full story…

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100542717

FSMA, The New FDA Food Safety Modernization Act

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the most sweeping reform of our food safety laws in more than 70 years, was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.

See the following resources for additional information

• Overview of the Proposed Rules
• Preventive Controls for Human Food: Fact Sheet on the Proposed Rule 
• Standards for Produce Safety: Fact Sheet on the Proposed Rule

SOURCE: FDA.GOV, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Nationally the FTC received more than 1.8 million complaints from consumers last year. More than half, or 55 percent, were related to any type of fraud, costing individuals more than $1.5 billion, according to a report the agency released last week. The top-ranked category was identity theft, the FTC said.
“No matter what goes on in the economy, fraud is persistent,” said Len Gordon, regional director in the Northeast for the FTC. “In good times and bad the fraudsters are very opportunistic and out to take people’s money.”

Source: Bloomberg
Related Sites: U.S. Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection

During the next two years, 30 percent of leading companies will extend the goals of their online community activities to the design of enhanced service processes, such as social CRM.

“Social CRM for customer service has only recently entered into the realm of contact center infrastructure and customer service software components, where it has been met with significant hype despite a limited number of field deployments,” said Drew Kraus, research vice president at Gartner. “There is strong corporate awareness, including at corporate executive levels, of social networks and their potential impact on corporate brand management and customer service perception. We expect the high-profile nature of social networks and social CRM for customer service to rapidly advance adoption from early adopter to mainstream deployments despite the volatile and rapid evolution of social networks in general.”

SOURCE: Gartner, Inc.
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1570814

FAA Improves Customer Service, Quality and Safety with Everest

Previously using a paper based system to track customer feedback, Jim Seabright, Manager for the FAA Planning and Systems Development Group, said it took weeks and sometimes months to respond to customer inquiries. In 2006, NACO, The National Aeronautical Charting Office, originally implemented Everest. Now a part of AeroNav Services, NACO provides nearly 200 visual flight charts, as well as airport directories and various terminal products, and it is critical that they are able to respond to pilot’s questions or concerns regarding aeronautical charts.

Achieving a dramatic improvement in turnaround times, customers now hear back from AeroNav Services within one to three days. For more information about FAA AeroNav Services http://www.faa.gov

Looking at customer feedback via Everest charts and reports is also a priority for AeroNav Services, which is committed to service quality and safety. Compiling the data for review used to take one to two employees nearly two weeks. In Everest, a member of the team can capture the data quickly and display it in multiple reports and charts for easy review.

The FAA’s IT department estimated that it would take 18 months to develop a system to track customer feedback – too much time to lose valuable data according to Jim. Instead, they were able to purchase Everest, customize it to meet there needs, and train the staff in less than two months. According to Jim, “The first six weeks of imputing concerns in the Everest system, we were already receiving reports and fixing areas where we were not adequately getting back to some of our customers.”

Building upon the success of the original implementation of Everest, the system was substainally reconfigured and expanded to serve the full scope of AeroNav Services.

Founded in 1838, Mauritius Commercial Bank is celebrating the official launch of the Everest Customer Complaint Tracking solution to track and resolve customer complaints across all bank operations.

“MCB launched the Everest software in September 2010 to commemorate the bank’s 172nd birthday,” commented Nicole De Maroussem, MCB Service Quality Assurance Specialist.

The launch of Everest was an important milestone for Service Quality at the bank because complaints are not just problems to be solved, but opportunities to improve. Everest includes extensive real-time reports and charts useful for Regional Managers, Service Quality and Senior Management. The software was deployed very quickly at MCB, just 30 days after it was installed.

The Everest Employee Portal enables anyone who works at the bank to quickly submit a new concern via the corporate intranet. One of the challenges that was met with the software’s built-in configuration was to route newly submitted concerns at the branch level directly to a regional branch manager. Debit and credit card related problems get routed to Card Services and other Concern Types are routed by the software accordingly. A unique tracking number is produced immediately on-screen for each new submission which is then visible in the software’s main menu for the appropriate manager who is also usually the Concern Owner responsible for resolving the problem.

The Customer Portal will function in much the same manner as the Employee Portal, but it is available directly to MCB customers visiting the MCB web site or using the bank’s online banking services.

“Customers already using online banking services value the convenience of self-service tools that save time. With the Everest Customer Portal, customers can quickly report a problem online anytime day or night, immediately get a tracking number for future reference and be done. This is ideal for financial services,” noted Michael Herzog, Lynk Software Project Manager.

MCB is based in Mauritius, an island nation located East of Africa in the Indian Ocean. To learn more about Mauritius, click here: http://www.mauritius.net

Choosing the Everest product by Lynk Software, MCB valued the vendor’s global experience supporting banks and insurance companies all over the world including companies located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. To learn more about Mauritius Commercial Bank, click here: http://www.mcb.mu

Most of us have become more frugal during the past several years of economic uncertainty. These days, people are spending more money on experiences that build memories than on toys and gadgets. We are thinking longer and harder about what to buy. And service – good service – has never been more important.

Manufacturers and retailers are keenly aware of this shift in spending, and are therefore finding creative ways to connect with customers. Wal-Mart – an Everest customer – responded to the change in consumer spending by marketing experiences such as game boards and other items one would need for home entertainment or “staycations.”

Research shows that strong relationships bring more happiness than having, or even spending, money. What this means for business in the new economy is that we need to be connecting with our customers more than ever.

At Lynk Software, making our customers happy makes us happy. But we are really in the business of helping our customers make their customers happy. Everest is a means to that end. Having easy access to critical information, Everest users are able to show genuine concern by demonstrating that the company cares enough to track customer feedback and make changes as a result.

The changes in consumer spending are likely here to stay, and are positive and healthy for the most part. As mindful consumption continues to replace conspicuous consumption, the opportunity for business lies in building relationships that last.

Is Your Organization Keeping Valuable Customer Data in Spreadsheets or a Homegrown Access™ Database?

A Common Scenario
One of the most common reasons for buying Everest is to replace spreadsheets, old software or a paper-based process. Our expertise comes from over 40 years of software application development. We understand the trade-off decisions considering in-house software development vs. buying a commercial off-the-shelf solution such as Everest.

Resource Allocation
One of the key factors to consider is project resource allocation. Significant issues to consider include:

 The internal resources necessary to create the desired functionality
 The talent and resources needed to maintain and update the system
 The effort required to become a subject matter expert
 The responsibility and resources to keep the system tuned with the latest technical advancements

An internal development team may possess the programming skills and even the lengthy development time required, however the extensive ongoing refinement of Everest keeps it consistently ahead of the pack. With Everest, you get the latest technological advancements, feature enhancements and cross-industry best practices bundled into regular releases of the program. Our focus and software expertise are unmatched because of the simple fact that Everest is all we do at Lynk Software.

Reasons for Change
Is your organization still keeping valuable customer data in various Excel™ spreadsheets or a homegrown Access™
database? Everest is a smart choice for many reasons. Consider the following:

 Multiple spreadsheets make consolidated reporting difficult and very time consuming, while inconsistencies can cause numerous errors
 Internally developed databases require regular maintenance and are usually over-dependent on a particular individual for advanced procedures or troubleshooting
 Data analysis is a time consuming, labor intensive process
 Limited functionality and static system design
 No internal support or completely outdated technology
 Results are displayed or categorized wrong due to inconsistent entries into key data fields
 Does not scale well for an expanded scope across multiple departments or multiple locations
 Evolution of the business including sales growth, expansion, merger, acquisition or re-organization
 Regulatory compliance requirements or industry standards for improving quality

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We all know how stressful customer service can be. Whether it’s a patient, a client or a consumer, providing excellent service can take a toll on your energy. While Everest makes it a lot easier to access customer data and respond with quick information, here are some more tips for staying resilient and positive:

• Breathe – Of course you’re breathing, but are you getting enough oxygen? Shallow breathing tells the body that you are stressed and can actually invoke the fight or flight response! The moment you feel stressed, take a deep breath and continue to breathe deeply throughout the day.

• Be Charitable when Making Assumptions – The thing about human nature is that when we don’t know the whole story we fill in the blanks – in other words, we make stuff up to help us feel secure. So instead of assuming that a difficult customer is just plain rude, fill in the blanks with a different story. Maybe the person doesn’t feel well, or perhaps she was just treated poorly by another company and is at her wits end.

• Drink Lots of Water - Dehydration can make you feel lethargic. You may not even be aware that you’re thirsty, but being parched tends to diminish coping skills, making you less able to think clearly and act with patience and understanding.

If you think about it, when you have enough energy, life is easier – and so are the people we encounter each day. At Lynk Software, we are happy to offer workshops on providing sustainable customer service as part of our commitment to help our customers – and their customers – thrive.