Companies House launches pledge to support vulnerable customers

7 Feb 2020 10:59 AM

We recognise that complying with statutory obligations can be difficult for users who find themselves in vulnerable situations, and we pledge to support customers during these periods.

At Companies House, we aim to deliver a seamless customer experience to all our users.

All customers must comply with statutory obligations, such as filing their accounts on time. And this can be difficult when they find themselves in vulnerable situations.

We recognise that periods of vulnerability can be long or short-term and can also be recurring. Some will experience vulnerability during particularly difficult periods, while for others it may be from longer term challenges.

There are a wide range of factors that contribute to vulnerability, including but not limited to:

• physical or mental health problems
• financial circumstances
• changes in life circumstances - such as bereavement or becoming a carer

To support our customers to complete their statutory obligations, we will:

• regularly review our policies
• deliver professional services to all customers
• train our colleagues to better support vulnerable customers
• use case conferencing and make sure best practice is shared
• use external expertise to challenge us to improve our services
• understand our customers and make sure our communication is effective

Our pledge

We pledge to work with our customers during these difficult periods to make sure they can access our information and services in a way that suits their needs.

Training

Our customer-facing teams are key to making sure we identify and help our vulnerable customers. We’ll make sure our people receive suitable training to identify and support customers who may be vulnerable, and also to guide them to additional support.

Regularly reviewing performance

To make sure we’re constantly improving our business practices for customer care, we’ll regularly review our policies. We’ll use external expertise to challenge and suggest improvements when necessary.

Read how we recently retained a customer service excellence standard award, after an external independent review of our services.

Providing a professional service

We’ll try to understand our customers, to make sure our communication is effective at all times. We seek to always provide a professional service to our customers, and to be flexible in our approach – within the limits set by legislation.

Our pledge comes alongside our new and improved customer charter. The aim of the charter is to set out what level of customer service customers can expect from us, and what we’re committed to providing our customers.

We recognise the importance of identifying, supporting and offering solutions for vulnerable customers. And we hope that this pledge shows our commitment to supporting customers through difficult times.