Service Quality Culture
UK Banking Group
What was the problem?
This banking group was too small to compete with the big banks on efficiencies, so a strategy of service differentiation was needed. The CEO knew that a superficial gloss of customer service at the front end wouldn’t work – he wanted a deeply engrained sense of service all the way through the organisation.
What did you do?
We helped the CEO and his executive team shape new mission statements and a set of specific service goals. Then a training package was designed to challenge and equip people in the bank to put these strategic ambitions into practice.
What happened?
Everyone was trained in service quality, managers over five days and non-managers over two. A critical part of the management training was to learn to deliver the training to their staff. The training roll-out was organised along business process lines, bringing people together who could have an impact on service outcome. The focus was on providing value at each point through to the customer and as teams were trained they immediately put their learning into action. Once people were trained and the new mentality established, branches became pure customer contact points, regional hierarchies were dismantled and administration focused into one centre.
What was the outcome?
The innovative training process attracted a National Training Award and managers retained their new style as coaches to their teams. The focus on value along each process through to the external customer created a leaner, more responsive organisation. This adaptability enabled the bank to move quickly and strongly with market opportunities such as online and telephone banking and a market-leading position was achieved. Meanwhile customer satisfaction jumped 20% with greatly reduced customer churn and a much lower account cost per customer achieved. The culture change within the bank with a more open management style, effective teamwork and higher morale has endured long after the programme ended. The bank used this to great effect in launching a unique value proposition knowing that they had the culture to sustain it.