TREATING CUSTOMERS FAIRLY POLICY

CRAWFORD DOUGALL INSURANCE BROKERS

DOUGALL INSURANCE BROKERS (PTY) LTD T/AS CRAWFORD DOUGALL INSURANCE BROKERS
FSP License Number : 24450

Physical Address : 130 Adelaide Tambo Drive
Durban North
4051

Postal Address : P O Box 47593
Greyville
4001

Crawford Dougall is committed to fair treatment of our clients and therefore recognized that Treating Customers Fairly, herein after known as TCF, is essential to our success in offering value to our clients Insurance needs.

Our TCF Policy is structed in alignment with the Financial Services Board to ensure a consistent, fair outcome to our clients.

The Six Outcomes of TCF :-

Outcome 1:

Clients can be confident in that they are dealing with a firm where TCF is a central to our Culture.

Outcome 2:

Products and Services sold are designed to meet the needs of our identified client group and are targeted accordingly.

Outcome 3:

Clients are provided with clear information and kept appropriately informed up to and including after the quoting process.

Outcome 4: 

Where advise is given, it is suitable and takes into account the clients circumstances

Outcome 5:

Products perform as Crawford Dougall have led clients to expect, and services rendered are of an acceptable standard.

Outcome 6: 

Client do not face unreasonable post inception sale barriers, imposed by Crawford Dougall to change products, switch providers, submit claims or make a complaint.

Achieving Outcomes:-

Crawford Dougall will demonstrate through our values, business practice and complaints resolution that we are committed to treating customers fairly throughout the stages of the Insurance / Product life cycle to which we are able to contribute. These include:-

Product and Service design: Products and Services provided by Crawford Dougall are designed to meet the customers needs with focus on specific target markets and their unique requirements.

Promotion and Marketing: Relevant and Appropriate products are marketed to the specific clients / target markets through clear and fair communications that are not misleading.

Advice: Our advisors are adequately trained to enable them to provide advice that is suitable to the needs of the customer / target market. They act in line with the objectives of the Treating Customers Fairly policy and avoid any conflicts of interest.

Point of Sale: To provide customers with ongoing relevant information to enable them to monitor whether the product or service continues to meet their needs and expectations and provide acceptable levels of service for post-sale transactions of enquiries.

Information after Point of Sale: We will continue to provide information on an on-going basis to our customers and advisors in order to monitor whether our customers needs are being met by the product selected.

Complaints and claims handling : We will honour our customers expectations by ensuring all claims and complaints are handled in a timeously, fair and consistent manner.

In order to fulfil our commitment to TCF, we will ensure the following standards are adhered to:-

• We will follow the requirements of the FAIS General Code of Conduct
• We will adhere to our Conflict of Interest Policy
• We will put processes in place to enable us to monitor and measure performance in delivering the relevant fairness in outcomes.
• We will ensure staff are adequately trained and maintain a high standard of service.
• We will not remunerate nor incentivise staff in a manner which may encourage dealing with customers in an unfair or biased manner.
• We will ensure customers are aware of what they can expect from their relationship with us.
• We will ensure after sales information and service to customers is appropriately provided.
• We will ensure on-going performance monitoring of products / services recommended and sold to our customers are suitably aligned with their needs.
• We will ensure open lines of communication with our product suppliers to ensure that we always understand their products and services.
• We will review our TCF policy on an ad hoc basis but at least annually.
• We will encourage and welcome feedback from staff and customers on our services and procedures.
• We will ensure our staff are trained on our TCF policy on an ad hoc basis but at least annually.
• We will satisfy ourselves that those with whom we do business are committed to treating customers fairly. We will consider their TCF policy and manage information that they can provide us in order to demonstrate the fair treatment of our customers.
• Our complaints procedure will be clear and easy to understand.

Complaints Handling 

• We will handle complaints fairly, timeously and impartially. 
• We will ‘treat like situations alike’ and give careful consideration to whether an error might have affected a wider class of customers; and what should be done to remedy this. 
• We will pay attention to the outcomes of complaints, which can serve as an important source of information about the performance of our business and systems. We will investigate the root causes of complaints in order that we improve the level of service that we provide. 
• We will measure that time taken to deal with a complaint, the outcome and the way in which the outcome is communicated to the customer in order to ensure that we are treating our customers fairly. 

Treating Customers Fairly  

• We encourage and welcome feedback from staff and customers on our services and procedures. 
• Staff objectives include TCF as an explicit and measurable objective and performance against this objective will form part of staff competency ratings. 
• All staff will complete refresher training and testing on an ad hoc basis. 
• Before we contract with a third party we will satisfy ourselves of their commitment to treating our customers fairly. We will consider their TCF policy and the management information that they can provide to demonstrate the fair treatment of our customers. 
• Our complaints process will be clear and easy to understand. 

For any queries or feedback in relation to Treating Customers Fairly at Crawford Dougall, you can contact us accordingly: 

Contact Person : Simon Dougall

Telephone Number: 031 207 3272

Email: Simon@dougall.co.za