Banking has changed fundamentally in the last 20 years as a new consumer affluence and confidence have swept away the old days where customers considered themselves somewhat fortunate to be in good standing with their local branch manager. 

Simultaneously, the emergence of ATM, phone and Internet banking has freed many from the drudgery of a weekly branch visit to cash a pay cheque or to lodge surplus income.   Banks themselves have embraced this new automation and direct channels for the capability it gives them to scale their customer base in a cost-effective fashion.

However, the distancing of the customer relationship has brought its own challenge.  Engaging customers in both basic service encounters and relationship management meetings has become the challenge for banks today.  Successful banks have proven that their superior customer engagement has translated into sales and into their bottom line.

At Bank of Ireland the initial call to action on the customer service agenda was spurred by falling customer satisfaction levels following an intensive branch transformation programme.  Whilst the transformation programme had reduced costs and refocused the organisation, customers railed against the branch closures and enforced migration to direct channels.  The real clincher, though, was when senior bank executives started to field customer complaints directly at social and other gatherings.  Something had to be done!

 

Initial Diagnosis — Where to Start?

To address the emerging concerns about customer service, the Chief Executive for Retail Banking established what became known as the service1st programme.  The programme was to span all of the bank’s retail activities and was to execute a rapid turnaround and improvement in customer experiences.  Surely an easy task!

The new programme team’s most immediate objective was to identify just where to start, as many areas of the bank offered potential for improvement and investment.  Two key influencers for the team were:

1. Research from the Council for Financial Competition on “customer delighters” — i.e., maximising the effort on those initiatives that have the potential to delight customers whilst doing just enough on those customer experiences that the customer considers as hygiene, and thus not differentiating.

2. Assistance from Cape Consulting, a U.K. consulting firm, to objectively assess the current state of customer experiences at the bank and how they might be improved through a widespread service programme.

The consulting team conducted a series of interviews with employees at all levels to understand the bank’s service ideals versus the reality of what was being delivered in the many thousands of customer experiences each day.  Not surprisingly, all of the interviewees were well able to articulate the gap as they saw it — and provided many different suggestions on how to close it.

The conclusion of the interview phase saw the publication of five principles by which the service1st programme would be defined and shaped over the following years:

1. There is a clear definition of the customer experience -- everyone can say how it should feel (and how they should behave).

2. The importance of the customer experience is consistently communicated by management.

3. Focusing on the customer experience clearly fits with other organisational priorities.

4. Measures and rewards recognise good customer experiences.

5. The organisation feels ‘seamless’ to the customer across all channels.

 

Getting Started — Using Base Camps

With a "burning platform" clearly established, a large number of suggestions for improvement at hand, and a leadership team eager for results, some prioritisation and order were needed.  Hence the concept of “base camps” was introduced. 

In mountaineering, a base camp is a place where supplies are stored ready for the next phase of the climb.  On larger climbs, multiple base camps are established at different altitudes to support the climbers on their journey to the summit.   Only when the climbing team has acclimatised at one base camp does the journey begin to the next.

This analogy was very appropriate for the service1st programme, which needed to have a “summit” in view but with staging posts along the way to make the journey manageable and to ensure that each gain or improvement was sustained along the way.  Each base camp would be defined in terms of the initiatives needed to get there along with the results that could be expected at that level — e.g., customer satisfaction of X%. 

The first “base camp” was all about getting the basics in place.  The team set out to raise awareness of the customer experience throughout the organisation, to establish the core organisational service standards, and to gain credibility by removing some key customer irritants:

• A “service board” with senior executives from throughout the retail bank met monthly to review progress.  Such senior endorsement was critical to getting buy-in and priority throughout the organisation.

• Service standards were published covering every aspect of the customer interaction — from what staff should wear through to the steps by which they could handle a customer complaint successfully.

• Along with Cape Consulting, a “FIRST” model to describe the unique Bank of Ireland approach to interacting with a customer was defined.  The firm used a train-the-trainer approach to transfer their skills to bank trainers, thus enabling the rapid rollout of dedicated service excellence training to all staff.  Measurement systems were adjusted or introduced to quantify its specific usage and impact at an individual employee level.

• A new complaint-handling system was introduced that encouraged staff to log all problems or complaints and to take primary responsibility for their resolution.

• Internal satisfaction surveys were introduced to ensure that units who were supporting front line branches and contact centres were equally accountable for their role in delivering for the customer.   

Over the following two years, a new base camp was established annually — which fostered a sense of accomplishment for the previous year’s activities whilst keeping the ultimate goal firmly in sight.  In addition to sustaining activity for earlier initiatives, the programme added many new innovations such as:

• Ireland’s first “queues” promise — that customers would be served in three minutes or less at branch counters.

• Point of sale electronic service trackers, which allowed branch customers to give feedback on the spot about their individual experiences.

• Weekly customer satisfaction reporting and training, which allowed managers and their teams to focus on what had worked well or not in the previous week.

• And to celebrate employees providing sales and service excellence via “Excellence Awards” -- a black tie event to rival the Oscars!

 

More than Mere Satisfaction

The service1st programme at Bank of Ireland has helped improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Employees are more engaged than they have ever been (as measured by Gallup) and customer satisfaction is at an all-time high of 85 percent (from a starting point in the low 60s).  The key learning from the programme has been:

1. Recognise the importance of providing consistency AND differentiation across all channels.  Customers want reliability of interaction irrespective of the channel or the person they are dealing with — but we also strive to provide them with positive experiences that they can relay to friends and family.

 2. We measure satisfaction AND loyalty across all businesses and operating units.  Satisfaction is not enough — we want loyal customers who will buy again and again from us.   Thus, our external customer survey assesses:

• Treated as a Valued Customer

• Consider Next Purchase

• Recommend a Friend

3. Chief Executive leadership is vital to engage the organisation -- and to ensuring that improving the customer experience is a never-ending journey. 

The improvement in the customer experience in Bank of Ireland has been significant and, more importantly, the customer is firmly on the agenda at every level as we continue to strive for service excellence.

Delivering superior customer experiences is simply the way we do business now.

 

Bank of Ireland was established in 1783 by Royal Charter and today has over 16,000 employees in 8 countries worldwide.  It is the largest Irish bank by total assets and the highest rated, Irish listed financial institution.  Brian Lande is Head of Client Management, Group Customer Contact.  In his previous role as Head of Customer Service, he established and led the Service 1st initiative. He can be reached at Brian.Lande@boimail.com.