Bye Byes to the PPI!
That’s the shout out from Arnold Schwarzenegger on the new FCA advert outlining the deadline for us to submit any outstanding PPI claims.
The film star and former governor of California has been hired to front a £42m advertising campaign by the Financial Conduct Authority to raise awareness of the final deadline of August 29 2019 that has been set for PPI claims. In the TV commercial, a model of Arnie’s head pops up and shouts “Do it now!” at supermarket shoppers dithering over a decision. The awareness campaign is funded by the 18 banks, building societies and credit card providers responsible for selling the bulk of PPI.
Despite the huge activity on cold-calling, nuisance texts and mass advertising from claims companies quite happy to do the hard work for you, unbelievably only 12million successful claims out of the 64million miss-sold policies have been claimed; although advice from FCA and organisations like Money Saving Expert encourage individuals to submit the claims themselves. So far £27bn has been claimed but the banks, building societies and credit card providers have set aside a further £37bn to pay out on anticipated claims before the deadline is reached.
PPI tales have become the butt of many jokes with comedians - weddings and holidays and new cars booked on expectations of a big pay out - so why hasn't everyone claimed? Surely everyone must know?
Procrastination could be the obvious excuse but in our busy, frantic lives, getting our attention can be difficult – there is so much noise in every area of our lives. We literally tune out with our headphones; watching and listening to exactly what we want, when we want and deciding how and when to get in touch with service providers.
And yet like teenagers who don't speak to you except when in need, consumers expect you to be there precisely when they need you to sort a problem. This is a huge challenge for organisations to be present and relevant according to consumer demand.
Running in parallel to that are demand management strategies trying to control, dictate and sometimes limit contact with customers, shifting the goal posts and at the same time potentially damaging the trust a customer has with your brand.
The PPI debacle has highlighted much of what is wrong when big brands lose trust with consumers. Earning that trust back can take a long time – particularly when customers don’t feel businesses are listening to them or allowing them to talk to them in the way they want.
From a customer’s perspective, it might feel like trying to get into a big house where you can see lots of windows but can’t actually find the door. Perhaps for businesses it’s about taking a step back and consider how well you are achieving the basics? That’s often the hardest road to travel and like consumers have done with PPI, it’s easy to procrastinate over. Maybe we should take Arnie’s advice and just “Do it now!”