In today's fast-paced and digitally driven world, businesses face an unprecedented challenge: the risk of a broken promise. Not only do businesses need to know all the promises they make to their customers, they also need to keep up with changes in the regulatory landscape. The consequences of a broken promise can be significant, potentially leading to financial penalties, reputational damage and reduced trust from shareholders.

Over the past few years, multiple regulators, including the ACCC and ASIC, have taken action against numerous companies across the retail, financial services and telecommunications sectors for failing to deliver on their promises.

In June 2023, ASIC released a report outlining how pricing failures identified by general insurers and poor non-financial risk management have led to significant consumer harm. In 2024, the ACCC addressed concerns involving key players in the retail and airline industries. These cases involved instances where customer promises were not fully met, leading to significant consequences for the organisations involved.

Why keeping promises can be challenging?

Understanding and keeping promises can be challenging for organisations due to three key factors:

As a result, many organisations face challenges in maintaining a comprehensive view of all the promises made to their customers, increasing the risk of not meeting these critical commitments. With the variety of channels and platforms used to communicate theses promises, along with the expanding range of services and products in the market, it becomes essential for organisations to have strong governance, systems, processes and controls to meet customer expectations and sustain trust.

How to effectively manage customer promises?

To effectively manage customer promises and ensure consistent delivery, organisations should review the following practices:

Ashurst can support you to achieve compliance and safeguard against risks, by combining legal and risk capabilities with the right technology, systems and tools to develop a fit-for-purpose customer promises register. Our approach ensures that you can quickly and efficiently obtain a single view of all promises and disclosures made to customers in order to enable targeted risk management.

In a landscape where customer trust is as valuable as financial performance, we can help you navigate the complexities of conducting business, help reduce risk and promote business success.