The Financial Conduct Authority’s latest review into firms’ approaches to the Consumer Duty’s support outcome offers a timely reminder: delivering good customer outcomes is not just about compliance—it’s about competence, collaboration, and continual refinement.

At first glance, much of the FCA’s guidance feels like common sense. Understand your customers. Design support around their needs. Monitor outcomes. Refine your approach. These are principles that any customer-centric organisation should already be living by. Yet, the FCAs findings reveal that many firms still fall short in practice.

Why? Because good outcomes aren’t achieved by good intentions alone. They require a blend of skill sets—technical, regulatory, operational, and communicative—to ensure that solutions are not only suitable and compliant, but also technically sound, digitally accessible, and clearly articulated.  I’ve worked in organisations where the intentions are spot on, but as the pressure to get things launched mounts, focus moves to delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) and invariably these solutions are never invested in as corporate priorities shift (often driven by the regulatory requirements!)

The Collaboration Imperative

The best outcomes emerge when teams across the business—compliance, product, tech, marketing, and frontline staff—work together. It’s not enough to design in isolation. Firms must actively engage with their target clients, validating assumptions and testing designs in real-world scenarios. This means involving customers early and often, not just at launch. When I have invited compliance or technical teams to attend user experience research testing they are often really surprised at the how simply things need to be expressed for a customer to understand them. We love our acronyms and often in an effort to demonstrate our competence we can easily fall into the trap of talking too technical.

The FCA highlights firms that have reviewed their end-to-end customer journeys, removed unreasonable barriers, and introduced thoughtful friction to help customers assess their options, so it is entirely possible and I have seen it done well many times (I should hasten to add it’s also much easier to design a digital journey for a simple product like an ISA than it is for say a pension). But, these are not one-off exercises—they are part of an iterative process that demands ongoing attention.

Digital by Design, Not Default

As digital channels become the primary interface for many customers, firms must ensure that their digital support leads to good outcomes. This isn’t just about having a chatbot or a help centre—it’s about designing digital experiences that are intuitive, inclusive, and effective. That requires input from UX designers, developers, compliance officers, and customer service teams alike. The best insights I have ever had are those from the call centre and the Customer Services teams – they know exactly what customers want and need and where their frustrations lie.

From Frameworks to Feedback Loops

The FCA points to firms with effective frameworks that include clear objectives, defined actions, outcomes monitoring, and a commitment to reflection and reform. But frameworks alone aren’t enough. What’s needed is a feedback loop—a mechanism for learning from customer interactions and continuously improving the support offered.

Too often, organisations launch a new process or platform and then leave it untouched. But customer needs evolve, technology advances, and regulatory expectations shift. Firms must be willing to revisit, revise, and reimagine their support strategies regularly and that’s largely about having the right Operating Model in place to support. Digital services should be treated like a service function, not a change function in my opinion

Conclusion: Making Common Sense Common Practice

Delivering good customer outcomes isn’t rocket science—but it does require rigour, empathy, and collaboration. By blending diverse skill sets, engaging customers in the design process, and committing to continuous improvement, firms can turn the FCA’s guidance from theory into practice.

Let’s make common sense common practice.

Rachel Allen

Lead Consultant