Insurers and brokers will soon face pressure to deal with customer disputes faster as the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) clears its backlog.

Chief Ombudsman Shane Tregillis says the external dispute resolution scheme should have new processes in place by July 1 next year.

“As FOS eliminates its backlog and moves into real-time disputes, this will impact on you,” he told the annual FOS conference on Thursday.

He says internal and external dispute resolution teams may have factored lengthy response times from FOS into their processes, but this is about to change.

“You will have to have the resources to respond in real time.”

FOS’ backlog grew as disputes stacked up following the global financial crisis and 2011 floods, and it has since been streamlining its operations to speed up resolution.

Mr Tregillis says trust should be at the heart of how the finance sector operates.

Clare Gleghorn and Andrew Collett, directors of public relations company Edelman, told the conference Australians are among the world’s most apathetic and cynical people when measured on the group’s international Trust Barometer of attitudes towards business and government.

They say consumers increasingly want financial service providers to engage with them. People also want to share their opinions, and websites such as Facebook enable them to do this.

Mr Collett says consumers trust front-line staff more than company executives.

“This is an untapped opportunity for most organisations, because they are not leveraging the power of their employees,” he said.

Staff who are handling complaints need to understand the company’s brand proposition and their role in delivering it.

Many organisations create brand campaigns offering experiences they cannot deliver, Mr Collett says.