Become ODR Compliant!

Here’s how you become ODR compliant!

After all, we did promise that you can get in RBI’s good graces……

Presenting Unified Dispute Management aka UDM, the first-ever and only product for disputes and reconciliation management in line with ODR requirements. It is designed for banks to effortlessly handle payment disputes arising from any payment channel.

So, what about it?

I can hear you thinking, what’s the connection between UDM and ODR?

Well, there’s a profound connection present among them, because UDM has ODR compliance points at every level.

Before we proceed, here’s the concept of the ODR system and its breakdown:

RBI’s Statement:

The ODR system should be a transparent, rule-based, system-driven, user-friendly, and unbiased mechanism for resolving customer disputes and grievances, with zero or minimal manual intervention.

Statement Breakdown:

• Transparent: The ODR system should be open and clear, so users can easily understand how decisions are made and what the rules are.
• Rule-based: It should follow specific, established rules to ensure that decisions are consistent and fair.
• System-driven: The process should be managed by technology, not relying heavily on human intervention.
• User-friendly: It should be easy for customers to use and navigate.
• Unbiased: The system should make fair decisions without any favoritism or prejudice.
• Zero or Minimal manual intervention: The goal is to minimize the need for human involvement, making the process as automated as possible.

Now, let’s get into the specifics!

Dispute Lodging and Tracking:

RBI’s statement:

Customers shall be provided with one or more channels — web-based or paper-based complaint forms, IVR, mobile application, call center, SMS, through branches or offices, etc. — for lodging disputes and grievances.

Statement Breakdown:

RBI mandates that banks and other financial companies must offer customers several ways to complain. These ways include:

• Online: Through a website or app
• Paper: By filling out a form
• Phone: By calling a customer service number (IVR) or sending a text message (SMS)
• In-person: By visiting a bank branch or office

This means that customers should be able to choose how they want to complain about a problem.

Unique Reference Number

RBI’s statement:

Once a customer has lodged the dispute or grievance, a unique reference number shall be allocated by the ODR system framework. Facility shall be provided to the customers for tracking the status of the dispute or grievance using this reference number.

Statement Breakdown:

• Complaint filing: When a customer files a complaint with their bank, they should get a specific number from the ODR system.
• Complaint Tracking: That specific number should allow the customer to check and see how their complaint is being handled and what the status is.

Why this point?

Here’s the reason:

One of the primary challenges today is that a customer today has to keep calling customer care to lodge and track a dispute. Sometimes it takes too many tries and explanations to different customer service agents resulting in frustration and ranting in social media.

How does UDM solve this?

UDM sits within banking applications both directly and indirectly. It can be integrated with the native banking internet and mobile banking, making it easy for the customer to easily file a complaint and it also assigns a unique ID number.

This unique ID number can be fed into the bank system and tracking can be provided by the bank to their customers. Likewise, UDM is also available for the customer service team as a dashboard that will help them create complaints and track existing ones based on the complaint ID provided.

Timing and Compensation

RBI’s statement:

Disputes and grievances relating to failed transactions shall be covered under the ODR system framework. All provisions, including those relating to TAT and compensation to customers mentioned in the above circular need to be adhered to while resolving disputes and grievances using the ODR system.

Statement Breakdown:

When using the ODR system to resolve the issues, banks/financial institutions must follow all the rules mentioned which primarily include rules about how quickly problems should be resolved (Turn Around Time, or TAT) and how customers should be compensated if they are affected.

UDM’s Solution:

UDM has a multi-layered approach because it is built with a card network, regulator, and bank rules to ensure that every dispute is actioned within the specified TAT. UDM will automatically send notifications to the analyst to ensure the TAT is not missed.

While all these points adhere specifically to every concept detailed by the RBI, UDM also adheres to the overall concept of RBI bringing about Zero/Less manual intervention.

How you ask?

Well, it is a simple answer!

AI- Artificial Intelligence

UDM comes with inbuilt AI touch points that take care of the heavy lifting part of the dispute journey at different stages:

• One of the challenges of the dispute process is that there is involvement of customer data, and it must be protected at all costs. But UDM’s in-built AI masks that sensitive data even if the customer unknowingly uploads the information.
• The next challenge is the validation of the representment package sent over by the acquirer. Analysts need to comb through so many attachments, and images and manually match them with the customer-uploaded documents to determine if the customer is right, but no more. UDM will take care of all that functionality, thereby making the analyst’s life easier.
• Additionally, UDM will also evaluate a dispute’s pre-arbitration eligibility which will help a dispute analyst to make an informed decision regarding its next step.
• Also, UDM’s in-built AI will assign dispute cases to analysts based on their strengths, and specialties, making the entire dispute process much more efficient.

So, the way to become ODR compliant is now a piece of cake,

because all you need is only UDM!