Enhancing Customer Trust through Effective Remediation

When it comes to business, trust is everything. Trust builds strong customer relationships, fosters brand loyalty and customer engagement, and can provide a competitive advantage when consumer trust differentiates you from your competitors.

In a landscape where businesses need to rectify past errors, omissions, and failures, navigating the path to remediation can be a challenging task for the unprepared. However, when done well, it can also serve as an opportunity to reinforce trust and establish lasting customer relationships.

At Mosaic, we do a lot of remediation for (and with) our clients, which is why we took a lot of time and care to submit on the draft Commerce Commission remediation guidance. It was pleasing then to see much of our feedback adopted by the Commission, including the addition of de minimis. A de minimis threshold in remediation is vital for efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and fairness. It enables resources to be used wisely, prioritises the more substantial cases, and maintains a balanced approach to consumer protection while preventing excessive burden on businesses, or consumers. Such as the ill-conceived letter providing a refund of less than the cost of the stamp to send it.

The recently released Commerce Commission Consumer Remediation Guidance, outlines the Commissions expectations for businesses looking to restore balance and maintain relationships with consumers when remediation is required. The Commission has framed its guidance around 9 principles:

Principles of Remediation:

1. Consumer Focus: Put consumers' interests first. Be proactive, communicate clearly, and show a commitment to remediate any harm.
2. Timely, Comprehensive, Fair and Transparent: Your remediation process should be well-scoped, flexible, and timely. Ensure it is fair, unbiased, and considers the diversity of consumers.
3. Calculating Compensation: Your compensation must be fair and equitable and should consider consumers' interests and needs. This includes where appropriate paying use-of-money interest.
4. Effective Communication: Clear, concise, and timely communication is essential. Tailor your messages to the language needs of your audience.
5. Engagement: Make every reasonable effort to engage with affected consumers, using multi-channel approaches, and ensure the process is easy for them to navigate.
6. Transparency in Outcome: Clearly explain why you are offering remediation, the components of your remediation, and consumers' rights to challenge the process.
7. Convenience and Accessibility: Offer remediation in a way that is convenient, accessible, and aligned with consumers' needs.
8. Effective Governance: Establish a solid governance structure, allocate adequate resources, and maintain senior oversight over your remediation process.
9. Record Keeping: Keep thorough records of the entire remediation process, including decision-making and communication with consumers.

Effective remediation is not just about legal compliance; it is about maintaining trust and strong customer relationships. At Mosaic, we align your practices with the Consumer Remediation Guidance, so your business can navigate remediation more effectively, putting consumers first and building trust that lasts.

Trust is a treasured asset; protect it.