IPRN Ellis Kopel Project of the Year 2012
Redesign of written correspondence for
Postovni sporitelna / Era
Do you remember ?
Prague 1 Festival: a lot of fun …
… but very low agency fees!
Communication in finance industry
• Sometimes it is
boring
• But it is still very
well paid
• Postovni sporitelna/Era– Owned by Belgian KBC Bank NV
– Retail banking brand of ČSOB - Ceskoslovenska
obchodni banka
(No.1 bank in Central Europe according to total
asset value – 936 bln CZK e.g. 37.7 bln EUR)
– Postovni sporitelna/Era (Czech retail bank
No.2), in the phase of re-branding
– More than 2 mil. clients in the CR
– More than 3.300 branches in the CR
Client
Premise
• What yould you do…• …if you were a bank…• …with 2 080 000
clients…• …and found out that…
• they don´t really understandyour letters…!
Premise
Ignore the problem
• like most of Czech financial institutions do …
or try to solve it !
• decision of the Era brand management made in summer 2011
Premise
So you have to …
• Re-write almost 1,000 type letters…
• Prepare ´how-to-write-correct-letters´ handbook…
• Train your staff how to do it in the future…
Premise
And it was even more important because …
• 99% of all branches are parts of post offices
• Any sophisticated communication has to be organised via letters
• Clients are historically of higher age and lower education
Specific features of Postovni sporitelna / Era
But… who should do it?
• Someone from consultancy firms (Big Four) ?– OK (let´s try how expensive
they are?)
• Skills training agency– They can teach you how to
deal with it (but will they do the job itself?).
How to determine the partner
PR agency could be the option …
• But…– We need ´how-to-write-
letters´ manual first, in less than 60 days
– Then organise the training of relevant staff
– Re-writing (or copywriting) of letters (500+ pcs)
• Good luck.
How to determine the partner
• To increase comprehensibility of letters to customers
• To unify both design and content of the letters (language, vocabulary, specific terms, names of the products and services etc.)
• To set sustainability of these positive changes for the future:– Written handbook
– Training of the staff
Objectives / needs of the Client
Redesign of correspondence of No. 2 Czech retail bank Era“ (more than 2.000.000 customers).
Agency prepared:
– ´how-to-write-letters-correctly´ handbook for relevant staff including also rules for e-mails and sms communication
– trained more than 60 people in letter copywriting (including e-mails and sms)
– created new texts of more than 500 letters
Tasks for the 1st phase
Legal departmentCorporate cultureMarketing In house
copywriters
----------------------------x IT department
Resistence ?
The best (possible) team !
Team leader:
- Tomas Hecko, Crest Communications (Account Director)
– Jiri Zavozda: professor of journalism @ Charles university / long term editor-in-chief of the prestigeous national daily paper/ member of the Czech TV Council
– Jiri Podzimek: Experienced TV scriptwriter and professional book editor
…. plus copywriter and office support
Winning strategy ?
• Starting data:
– Qualitative research regarding mailing correspondence
– 300 respondents/clients of the bank
– 100 respondents/clients of competitors
– Men and women, 18+– All regions of Czech
Republic
1st step: Evaluation
• Close cooperation with all relevant departements from the very beggining:
– Marketing deptartment– Sales departement– Product design dept.– Legal department– Internal audit department
2nd step: Cooperation
• Never-done-before project
• Timing vs. Scope of work• Number of employees /
departements involved• Similar project in sister
company (ran by one of the Big Four consultancies)
Challenges
Activities / Timing 1/2
• Signing the contract = D Day• D+9 days: meetings with all relevant (5)
departements • D+20 days: the first version of handbook, the
first 20 letters• D+20 – D+44 days: internal commnications of
the project (e-mailing, intranet)• D+41 days: final version of handbook (content)• D+48 days: printed version of handbook
delivered
Activities / Timing 2/2
• D+54 days – D+70 days: training of relevant staff (60+ people)
• D+70 days – D+120 days: helpline for relevant staff (e-mail, answers within 24 hours)
• D+120 days – D+ 400 days: rewriting (or copywriting) of app. 500 letters
Handbook („How to write correct Era letters “)
Final results
• Based on the CEO´s direction all written communication of the bank follows our rules from January 1st, 2012.
• 150 new letters in use now• Further 350 type letters planned in 2012• 80 employees already trained (heads of relevant
departments, key managers of telemarketing dept., client service centers, backoffice)
• Company´s ombudsman involved in the project
--------------------------------------------
Important change in the company´s culture!
• Client´s management– „We´ve tried to do something like this twice before.
Never succeeded.“– „There is a consultancy firm from Big Four doing the
same project in our sister company. They are still at the beginning after 6 months of work and you make it in three months!“
– „Pity you don´t speak French. Our mother company is interested.“
• Crest Communications internal evaluation– Excellent case study– Letter of recommendation
Testimonials / Evaluation
• New product with real added value
• Unique expertise of PR agency– project management– customer service– excellent copywriting/language skills
• Potential clients are financially strong – retail finance (banks, insurance houses)– energy suppliers (electricity, gas, water)– telco (mobile operators)
Opportunity for all IPRN agencies
www.erasvet.cz
Thank you for listening.
Redesign of Era correspondence
