Delivering Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) is about more than meeting regulatory expectations. It is a core FCA requirement and sits alongside Consumer Duty, which places greater emphasis on monitoring and evidencing fair customer outcomes. It requires a clear commitment to openness, clarity and transparency across every stage of the customer journey. From leadership and culture to systems, processes and staff training, businesses must ensure fair outcomes are embedded into daily operations and supported by robust oversight.
Below, we outline practical steps your organisation can take to meet TCF requirements and demonstrate compliance with confidence.
What are the 6 TCF Outcomes?
The six TCF outcomes set out the standards firms must meet to ensure customers are treated fairly at every stage of the relationship. They focus on embedding fairness into company culture, designing products that meet customer needs, providing clear information, delivering advice, ensuring products perform as expected, and removing unreasonable post-sale barriers.
For a detailed explanation of each of the six TCF outcomes and how they should be delivered in practice, see our guide on How to Deliver the 6 TCF Principles, which breaks down every outcome and offers practical insights.
How to Meet Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) Requirements
Make Your Business Culture Customer-Centric
To be effective, the TCF principle should be threaded through your whole organisation. Your management team needs to lead by example and ensure that all staff understand what TCF is and know how to deliver fair outcomes for every customer.
Automotive Systems’ FCA compliance software supports this by centralising processes, tracking training, and providing management information that helps evidence fair customer outcomes across the dealership and dealer groups.
Be Empathetic
Seek feedback from your customers and pay close attention to their needs. Feed what you learn back into your business strategy and day-to-day operations. By taking customer opinions seriously, you can make meaningful improvements to your processes and service delivery.
Pay Close Attention to Vulnerable Customers
The FCA has specific guidance on how vulnerable customers should be treated. Responsibility sits at both leadership and frontline level. Senior management must ensure the right governance, training, oversight and systems are in place to support fair outcomes, while sales executives are responsible for recognising signs of vulnerability, adapting their approach and recording interactions appropriately during live customer engagements.
Automotive Systems’ Detection & Support for Vulnerable Customers feature within our TCF software supports this shared accountability. It helps dealerships identify, record and appropriately support customers who may be vulnerable through structured prompts, compliant workflows and clear audit trails. This enables management to evidence oversight and gives frontline teams the practical tools they need to deliver fair, consistent and regulator-ready outcomes.
Put Proper Systems in Place
Ensure your resources, systems, policies, and procedures enable you to meet the six TCF outcomes and wider FCA expectations. This includes structured training and CPD tracking, commission oversight, vulnerability identification processes, complaint monitoring and regular management information (MI) reviews. If gaps exist, identify what needs to change and implement improvements promptly.
Automotive Systems’ sales reporting feature within its FCA Treating Customers Fairly software helps dealerships consolidate and analyse key performance and compliance data, giving management clear visibility of sales trends, F&I performance and compliance monitoring metrics. This enables senior leaders to identify emerging risks, assess training needs and evidence fair customer outcomes through structured, regulator-ready reporting.
Review Your Services and Strategy
Delivering Treating Customers Fairly is not a one-time exercise. Firms must regularly review management information, analyse complaint trends and root causes, assess product performance and ensure remuneration structures do not create customer harm. Ongoing oversight demonstrates that fair treatment is embedded, monitored and continuously improved.
Keep detailed records and regularly assess how your products and services are performing. By closely monitoring your operations, you can demonstrate that your staff, your firm, and any third parties are aligned with TCF principles and Consumer Duty expectations. Be prepared to evidence to the regulator that you are consistently meeting customer needs and delivering measurable fair outcomes.
Delivering Treating Customers Fairly requires leadership accountability, trained frontline teams, structured systems and ongoing oversight. Firms must not only embed fairness into their culture but also demonstrate it through clear documentation, reporting and governance.
Automotive Systems’ FCA compliance software helps dealerships centralise compliance processes, strengthen oversight and evidence fair customer outcomes with confidence. Ensure compliance, enhance operational visibility and support a culture aligned with FCA expectations.
Explore how our solutions can help your dealership meet TCF and Consumer Duty requirements today.
STREAMLINE & ENHANCE PERFORMANCE WITH
A flexible platform that works the way you need it to
Built on a flexible and fully supported platform, specifically designed to be beautifully simple and easy to use while maintaining compliance in a multitude of areas.
LETS TALK
STREAMLINE & ENHANCE PERFORMANCE
With a focus on simplicity
Who needs over-complicated software?
We’ve developed a flexible software system that embodies simplicity for its users and customers whilst offering robust FCA compliance and a comprehensive reporting facility.