Insurers warned QA processes may leave Consumer Duty blind spots

Insurance firms face growing pressure from regulators, customers, and stakeholders to prove they consistently treat customers fairly. But new independent research commissioned by Manchester-based customer engagement platform MaxContact suggests many FCA-regulated businesses have less visibility into customer interactions than they believe.

MaxContact’s research found that while 86% of FCA-regulated managers and directors are confident they could provide evidence of fair treatment if a regulator reviewed their calls tomorrow, more than half (54%) have discovered a compliance breach outside their routine quality assurance sample. More worryingly, 16% discovered breaches on more than one occasion and half of managers and directors say their business has lost a sale, contract or customer because of a compliance issue in the past 12 months.

The findings raise questions about whether traditional QA processes provide insurers with enough evidence to confidently assess customer outcomes, identify vulnerability and investigate potential compliance concerns at scale.

Under the FCA’s Consumer Duty rules, insurance providers must deliver good outcomes for customers. They must be able to explain what is happening across customer journeys, identify poor outcomes or emerging risks, and take appropriate action where required.

However, previous research from MaxContact’s Voice of the UK Consumer 2026 report (published earlier this year) suggests that customers do not always perceive fair outcomes in the same way as insurance providers. MaxContact found that one third of insurance customers say they have felt unfairly treated during a claim or dispute, while only 23% felt renewal conversations genuinely focused on helping them find the right level of cover.

Ben Booth is the CEO of MaxContact. He warns that these findings should encourage insurance companies to reassess whether quality assurance processes provide enough oversight to ensure that customer outcomes have been appropriately monitored.

He says,

“It’s been three years since the FCA introduced Consumer Duty, and most regulated firms are confident they could evidence fair treatment if a regulator asked tomorrow. But more than half of the managers we surveyed have found a compliance issue that their routine quality assurance never picked up. Our research has also found some worrying insights for the insurance sector, particularly that fewer than a quarter of customers feel renewal conversations are genuinely focused on their needs.”

“These findings suggest that now is the time for insurance companies to check whether their quality assurance processes can provide clear evidence of fair treatment on any given call, and flag potential risks before they escalate into serious commercial consequences.”

To address this challenge and help businesses reduce the gap between confidence and evidence, MaxContact has launched Auto QA, which is a new capability within its Conversation Analytics platform. It enables organisations to run automated compliance checks across every eligible call, creating an evidence trail that supports audits, complaint investigations and regulatory reviews.

Quality assurance scoring is driven by each organisation's own existing QA scorecards and compliance criteria, with every assessment linked back to transcript evidence from the customer interaction.

Ben concludes,

“There are too many FCA-regulated businesses discovering compliance issues outside their routine quality assurance reviews. That doesn't necessarily mean firms are doing the wrong thing, but it does raise an important question about how much they can actually evidence. As organisations face increasing pressure to evidence customer outcomes and fair treatment, they need to be able to show what was found on a specific call and what was done about it."

For more information about MaxContact’s Auto QA, please visit maxcontact.com

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Editors notes

About the Quality Assurance research

Research conducted by Censuswide on behalf of MaxContact, among a sample of 300 managers or directors in UK contact centres, evenly split across those who predominantly work in sales (100), customer care/technical support (100) and debt collection (100).

Fieldwork was carried out between 13 and 20 August 2026.

Of the 300 respondents, 285 reported that their organisation is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

Censuswide is a member of the Market Research Society and the British Polling Council, and a signatory of the Global Data Quality Pledge. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles.

About the Voice of the UK Consumer research

The Voice of the Consumer 2026 is an independent study commissioned by MaxContact.

The study surveyed 1,000 UK adults aged 18 and over who had interacted with a company’s contact centre by any channel in the last 18 months.

Data was collected between 16 April and 23 April 2026. Guaranteed minimum subsamples: 150 Utilities, 150 Telecoms, 125 Finance/credit, 100 Insurance.

The research was conducted in accordance with the Market Research Society (MRS) Code of Conduct and ESOMAR principles

About MaxContact

MaxContact is the AI-powered customer engagement platform that transforms customer conversations into measurable business outcomes. Built around industry-leading intelligent dialling technology and smart automation, we help teams connect with the right customers at the right time, while AI-powered capabilities drive consistent performance improvements. Our platform delivers exceptional results - from 200-300% increases in contact rates to doubling sales teams’ conversion rates.

Whether driving sales, improving retention, or optimising debt recovery, MaxContact empowers businesses to scale performance predictably. Trusted by growing companies handling millions of interactions annually and backed by 5-star UK-based support, MaxContact proves that smart technology amplifies human potential rather than replacing it.