How UK Complaints Management Has Evolved: The Impact of Increased Regulation and The Role of Aptean Respond Today

Complaints management in the UK today is fundamentally different from how complaints were handled in the early 1990’s. While technology and dedicated software platforms have played a role in this evolution, they are only part of the story. Increased regulatory scrutiny, rising customer expectations and greater operational risk have reshaped the complaints landscape.

In particular, the scope of the regulator has increased significantly, with areas such as consumer credit – including Motor Finance Commissions, Pay Day Loans and Buy Now Pay Later – being more tightly reviewed. In some cases, this meant organisations outside regulation had to shape up, and in other situations, it meant more of a business’ activities becoming regulated.

For organisations operating in regulated sectors such as financial services, insurance and local government, complaints handling has moved from the margins of the business to a core control function. Over the past 35 years, complaints have become a primary indicator of risk management, fair customer outcomes, and the effectiveness of governance processes.

With the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) also requiring organisations to have a senior-level executive to hold Duty of Responsibility for handling complaints and ensuring compliance, it means that complaints are now very visible at a senior level – making them even more important across regulated organisations.

Launched in 1991, Aptean Respond is a dedicated complaints management solution for regulated industries that has evolved alongside these changes, supporting organisations as complaints volumes, complexity and regulatory expectations have increased.

Below, we will explore where complaints handling has changed significantly over the last three decades, and the vital role that technology now plays in helping organisations like yours to effectively manage these areas and the value that can be delivered across the business.

Complaints Management as a Control Framework

Then: Complaints handling focused largely on resolution. Now: Complaints function as a control framework.

Regulators expect your business to evidence how complaints are identified, categorised, investigated and resolved within defined timeframes, and how learning from complaints is used to improve your processes and customer experience. Complaints handling is no longer judged solely on ticking regulatory service level boxes, but on outcomes and the strength of the controls that underpin those outcomes.

Manual processes and fragmented tools struggle to provide the auditability, consistency, and detailed insights now required. Aptean Respond centralises complaints handling into a single platform, enabling a structured and repeatable approach to case management and governance. This reduces reliance on informal processes and individual judgement, strengthening regulatory confidence and organisational oversight.

Scaling Complaints Handling During Regulatory Events

Then: Complaints volumes were largely predictable and manageable. Now: Organisations must be able to scale rapidly during periods of regulatory focus.

Over the last three decades, the UK financial services sector has experienced several industry‑wide complaints events that have tested operational resilience. Issues such as payment protection insurance (PPI) and the ongoing scrutiny of motor finance commission arrangements have generated sustained volumes of related complaints over extended timeframes.

These events challenge organisations like yours to maintain fairness, consistency and regulatory compliance at scale and at pace. In addition to handling large complaint volumes, you also need to manage remediation exercises, ensure compensation decisions are applied consistently, and maintain clear communication with affected customers.

Aptean Respond has supported many organisations through these periods by enabling structured handling of related complaints and remediation activity, consistent application of regulatory criteria and robust audit trails. These events have reinforced a key lesson for the industry: complaints systems must be easy to set up and able to operate effectively under pressure, whilst being highly adaptable to meet operational readiness deadlines.

Consistency Across Channels, Products and Time

Then: Complaints were raised through limited channels and handled within individual teams. Now: Complaints span products, time periods and multiple customer touchpoints.

Complaints today rarely fit neatly into a single category. They may relate to historic products, evolving regulatory standards, or broader customer experience issues. Customers can also raise complaints through a wide range of channels, including email, phone, post, and social media.

This complexity increases the risk of inconsistent handling or missed complaints. Aptean Respond supports consistency by enabling configurable workflows, industry‑specific templates and organisation‑defined case processes. By embedding structured handling across channels and complaint types, you can reduce the dependency on manual intervention and improve operational resilience.

Car finance lender MotoNovo is one example of an organisation that used Aptean Respond to improve consistency in complaints handling, resulting in:

• A reduction in Financial Ombudsman Service referrals from 10% to 2%

• 26% of complaints resolved at first point of contact

• A 25% reduction in complaints not resolved within the 56‑day timeframe

These outcomes highlight how structured complaints management supports both regulatory compliance and improved customer experience.

Turning Complaints Data into Regulatory Evidence

Then: Complaints data was recorded for reference. Now: The insights from complaints handling are used as regulatory evidence.

Regulatory expectations extend beyond individual complaint outcomes. You are expected to use complaints data to identify systemic issues, demonstrate remediation where required and evidence improvements to processes and controls.

Aptean Respond enables structured data capture through configurable templates and in‑product AI to support automated case creation. This allows you to move beyond anecdotal insight towards trend analysis, root cause identification, and senior management reporting. Using complaints data in this way is critical not only for compliance, but for addressing underlying issues and improving customer satisfaction.

Complaints Management Under Consumer Duty

The introduction of Consumer Duty further elevated the strategic role of complaints management. Complaints data is now a key indicator of whether your organisation is delivering good outcomes for customers.

To meet these expectations, you need reliable and auditable complaints data that captures why customers complain, how complaints are handled, and how customers perceive the outcome. Complaints data provides a retrospective view of the customer journey, but it also highlights how well you are meeting your Consumer Duty requirements and it is increasingly being used to inform customer support models and governance decisions.

A robust complaints management system is therefore essential to ensure this information is captured consistently and used effectively to support regulatory obligations.

Take Shawbrook Bank, a UK-based specialist bank, who implemented Aptean Respond as Consumer Duty was introduced. By implementing a Cloud-based solution, it allowed them to unify their complaints in one single platform to ensure data accuracy and reliable reporting, handle diverse workstreams and implement more robust and flexible root cause analysis processes.

Bringing Experience, Control and Innovation Together

As complaints management continues to evolve, the focus is shifting towards strengthening evidence, insight and integration while modernising existing processes. Your organisation is under increasing pressure to demonstrate control, transparency and good customer outcomes, so you need a solution that is built specifically for the requirements of your industry.

AI‑enabled capabilities will play an important role in this next phase, supporting data analysis, trend identification and insight generation across large volumes of complaints information. Crucially, this innovation must support, not replace, human oversight and decision‑making.

By embedding AI directly into the product and connecting with AI-powered connected workspace AppCentral, Aptean Respond reduces manual effort, supports timely and consistent complaint handling and strengthens compliant case management. Built on more than 35 years of market experience, Aptean Respond continues to evolve in line with how complaints are regulated and handled in practice, by combining innovation with best practices.

To learn more about how Aptean Respond supports effective complaints management for regulated industries, speak to our team.