Customer story
How Compare Retirement reached 100% call oversight
Equity release · UK- Before
- 26%
- of calls manually reviewed
- After
- 100%
- oversight of client interactions
- QA time
- Minutes
- per flagged call, not hours
- Advice
- 7 days
- a week, by phone, nationwide
Complete oversight without slowing operations
Compare Retirement wanted full oversight of every client conversation without slowing down operations. COSA delivered transcription, automated scoring and audit-ready trails — enabling minutes-not-hours QA on priority flags, stronger Consumer Duty evidence, and adviser coaching grounded in verbatim client language.
- Customer
- Compare Retirement
- Sector
- Equity release advice, by phone
- Challenge
- Manual QA covered only 26% of calls
- Outcome
- 100% oversight · QA in minutes
The challenge
Manual QA couldn't keep up with phone-advice volumes
Listening end to end, taking notes and relying on memory was slow, inconsistent, and risked missing red flags — so only a fraction of calls were ever reviewed. Under the Consumer Duty, leadership needed scalable oversight, faster reviews and data-driven evidence.
The solution
COSA operationalised oversight
- Transcription
Every call transcribed
Searchable, timestamped transcripts of client calls.
- Assessment
Automatic scoring & flagging
Timestamped extracts that take reviewers straight to the issue.
- Reporting
Audit-ready QA summaries
Generated within minutes to support MI and regulatory engagement.
- Coaching
Adviser coaching
Topic timelines and verbatim phrases from real conversations.
- Documents
Document cross-checks
Calls aligned with suitability reports and product illustrations.
- Monitoring
Consumer Duty monitoring
Vulnerability cues and signs of a lack of understanding detected.
Why this matters for the Consumer Duty: firms must assess, test, understand and evidence outcomes. COSA helps demonstrate reasonable steps, with MI and audit trails.
Implementation: onboarding was fast and collaborative. Compare Retirement uploaded historic call recordings and documents; teams adopted the dashboards to navigate flags, topics and transcripts; and COSA ran enablement sessions and iterated QA criteria with compliance leads.
What Compare Retirement says
“With COSA AI, we see the right calls first, evidence Consumer Duty effortlessly, and coach advisers with precision — without slowing the team.”
Dennis Kreijns
Director & Senior Equity Release Adviser, Compare Retirement
Results
Measurable outcomes, and a stronger position
What changed for Compare Retirement's compliance team and advisers.
- 01
QA in minutes
Not hours, on flagged calls — freeing compliance time for higher-value work.
- 02
Scalable oversight
Across 100% of interactions, well beyond manual sampling — without growing QA headcount.
- 03
Audit-ready documentation
Every interaction transcribed, scored and stored, evidencing proactive vulnerability identification and MI.
- 04
Targeted coaching
Driven by real conversations, timestamped topic analysis and outcome trends.
- 05
Governance aligned to Consumer Duty
MI, vulnerability detection and data-driven evidence to show reasonable steps to monitor outcomes.
- 06
Faster time to insight
Compliance focuses on flagged segments, so the team spends its time on judgement, not listening.
Compare Retirement also uses COSA AI's engagement add-ons — AI SMS chatbots and human-avatar video tools — which delivered up to 35% more customer interactions.
About Compare Retirement
Compare Retirement provides expert equity-release advice by phone, 7 days a week, serving customers nationwide.
Visit their websiteAbout COSA
COSA transforms QA from manual sampling into continuous, automated oversight — with fast summaries, risk flags and audit packs that reduce regulatory risk and improve productivity.
Explore the platformFAQ
Questions about this story
How does COSA evidence Consumer Duty?
By assessing each interaction against the firm's rules, flagging vulnerability cues, and keeping the evidence and reports tied to every call — providing MI and demonstrating reasonable steps to monitor outcomes (PRIN 2A / FG22/5).
Will it slow advisers down?
No. COSA only processes calls once they've finished, and compliance focuses on the flagged segments, so QA is done in minutes, not hours.
Can you review 100% of calls?
Yes — every in-scope interaction is transcribed, assessed and searchable, with timestamped flags for rapid review. Calls you choose to exclude are logged with the reason.
What about data privacy?
Access is invitation-only with role-based permissions and two-factor authentication. Each firm's data is isolated, and logins, exports and changes are written to an audit log.
Does this work outside equity release?
Yes — because the rules are the firm's own, COSA suits regulated, telephone-based advice and sales models such as mortgages, protection, insurance and wealth.
Risk & legal disclaimer
Equity release may reduce the value of your estate and can affect eligibility for means-tested benefits. Interest typically rolls up and the loan is repaid when you die or enter long-term care.
Case study published with client permission; outcomes vary by firm.
Consumer Duty context: firms must evidence outcomes and customer support (PRIN 2A / FG22/5). Learn more at FCA.org.uk.
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