When regulatory requirements change, organizations can struggle to keep customer communications compliant. Managing new rules from federal, state, and other institutions while dealing with legacy systems and processes can make it challenging for organizations to keep pace.
Failure to comply with regulations can result in significant financial consequences — as much as $500 per noncompliance letter. Beyond the financial impact, noncompliance can significantly damage an organization’s reputation.
Improving the effectiveness of your internal regulatory communication production process can make it easier for your organization to remain compliant and allow your teams to refocus on other business priorities.
Here are four areas where your organization can reduce risk in your regulatory communication production process:
1. Focus on Efficiency
Many organizations are locked into legacy processes that require too much time and too many people to implement changes. Simple changes shouldn’t require an inordinate number of resources. Complicated internal systems can push organizations to send out non-compliant communications.
Legacy systems and organizational inertia have led many organizations onto paths that waste valuable resources and time while creating inconsistent communications and consumer confusion. Inefficient processes can hide compliance gaps and lead to fines and rework. You cannot fix what you cannot see.
Simplified processes prevent bottlenecks and confusion around the status of changes. Making it easier for everyone involved to understand what is needed minimizes the risk of oversights that can push your organization out of compliance. Streamlining approval processes reduces handoffs and the risk of mistakes.
Organizations need agile systems that respond to the level of change with the necessary controls and governance. Revisit your organization’s approval processes and limit reviews and approvals to the stakeholders needed for the complexity of the change.
2. Centralize Management
Organizations need tight version controls to ensure communications remain compliant with regulatory requirements. Locally stored templates and manual processes present unnecessary exposure as team members can unknowingly start with an outdated version and put the organization at risk.
A centralized platform replaces shared folders or local document versions, providing visibility into approval workflows and document changes. By centralizing change management and production through one platform, your organization can ensure consistency and compliance as new versions are published.
With a single source of truth, and a consistent workflow, every team member will always start with the correct, approved version. A centralized approach can also tap into your organization’s high-volume document output processes, allowing your team to take advantage of lower production costs and established archive and workflow – no more off-cycle, manual processes.
Clear audit trails and proof of delivery build governance into every touchpoint and streamline preparation for regulatory audits when needed.
3. Incorporate Automation
Complying with regulations can be a costly and time-consuming process, especially when processes are inefficient and manual. Automation helps organizations standardize internal production processes and makes it easier for teams to be confident that communications comply with regulatory requirements. Stakeholders can approve materials faster because workflows enforce the requirements for each step before progressing.
Automation securely scales customer communications by minimizing risk and improving visibility throughout the change process or production run. Eliminating manual work means deploying changes with fewer resources, on time, and without sacrificing compliance.
4. Reduce Confusion Through Clear Communications
Certain communications to customers are required by law. Unfortunately, the difficulty in getting legally compliant language into production or keeping documents compliant often leads to companies missing a critical point. What you send needs to be compliant and understandable.
One key benefit of making communication management easier is it frees resources to focus on ensuring all communications with customers are clear and comprehensible. When questions arise, support teams can tap into a central source for communication history and proof of delivery. With this access, representatives are always equipped and ready to address specific concerns and questions.
When it comes to customer communications, ensuring regulatory compliance is table stakes. Unfortunately, too many organizations commit valuable resources to creating communications that lead to subpar results. Refocusing on efficiency and streamlining process management reduces the cost of compliance.
Incorporating automation and eliminating confusion further reduces risk and improves the customer experience. By simplifying the production of regulatory communications, your organization can be better positioned for future changes while improving profitability.
Ready to improve your regulatory communication production process? Let's discuss how Compliance Hub can help reduce regulatory compliance risk for your organization.
