For financial services leaders, customer service has become a balancing act. Organisations must stay compliant, hit SLAs, and deliver personalised support – all while managing peak demand and stretched teams.

With regulatory scrutiny and customer expectations rising, directors and managers need new ways to streamline operations without losing the human touch.

In this article, we explore today’s five biggest challenges in financial services, within customer service and how to turn them into opportunities.

1. Navigating the complexities of regulatory compliance

Compliance is no longer back-office; it’s front and centre for customer service leaders. Every communication must be accurate, timely, and auditable to satisfy FCA Consumer Duty, UK GDPR, and DORA.

Many teams still rely on manual processes for critical communications, which results in:

• Long hours spent checking correspondence for errors.
• Missed regulatory deadlines.
• Increased stress and risk across teams.

Recent research shows the cost is real: 36% of UK financial services firms were penalised for compliance failures in the past year.

How Aceni Mail helps: Create compliant, automated multichannel communications with full audit trails to reduce manual effort and risk. Explore Aceni Mail.

2. Keeping teams aligned with industry standards

Customer service teams sit at the frontline of both compliance and reputation. Yet fragmented updates and inconsistent adoption often make it difficult to ensure everyone is working to the latest standards.

With 28% of working adults now in hybrid roles (ONS, June 2025), the FCA has been clear: oversight must remain consistent, regardless of where staff are based. For Directors, the stakes are high. For example, miscommunication may lead to complaints, SLA failures, and reputational damage, which can affect Consumer Duty outcomes.

How Aceni Mail helps: Provide a central, secure platform for distributing updates and templates across channels, print, email, SMS, or online, so every agent uses the latest approved version. This gives managers confidence that teams meet FCA expectations for consistent customer communication. See the multichannel communications platform.

3. Balancing efficiency with personalised customer care

Customers expect service that is fast and human. Manual admin (scanning returned forms, assembling multi-page mail packs) steals time from meaningful interactions.

Industry research continues to show that poor digital experiences drive switching and dissatisfaction.

How Aceni Mail helps: Automate repetitive workflows and simplify multichannel delivery, freeing agents to focus on empathy-driven interactions while maintaining speed and accuracy. Learn how it works.

4) Managing high customer volumes during peak periods

Demand fluctuates sharply around:

• Annual tax reporting and end-of-year communications
• Mortgage rate changes and product renewals
• Regulatory mailings or policy updates
• Sudden market-driven surges in customer inquiries

The pressure shows up in complaints and SLAs. Between April and June 2024, the Financial Ombudsman Service received 74,645 new complaints, a 70% year-on-year increase, with 37% upheld for consumers.

How Aceni Mail helps: Automate bulk, multichannel communications with full tracking and audit logs to protect SLAs and compliance during spikes – keeping service levels steady and easing pressure on agents. See bulk and surge support.

5) Integrating new technology without disruption

Innovation often stalls under the weight of legacy systems and risk-averse cultures. Long IT projects can create downtime, retraining headaches, and delivery delays – while customer needs keep moving.

How Aceni Mail helps: Integrate with existing infrastructure to modernise customer communications quickly and safely, without lengthy rollouts – while maintaining security and compliance. Implement without disruption.

A smarter way forward

In today’s financial landscape, customer expectations, regulatory demands, and operational pressures are only increasing. Aceni Mail enables you to meet them all – modernising communications without disruption, easing the load on your teams, and safeguarding compliance at every step. The result? Faster transformation, stronger engagement, and a decisive edge in a market where only the most adaptable will lead.

Discover Aceni Mail today and start turning operational pressures into lasting advantages.