feature making the connection - tlf research · you can’t just assume that the brave new digital...
TRANSCRIPT
Using technology to get closer to customers
It’s hard to avoid coverage of the impact of
technology on customer experience. Whether
it’s AI, digital channels, or augmented reality,
technology is mounting an assault on the
traditions of customer service.
Too often this is billed as being in opposi-
tion to the human-to-human interactions of
traditional customer service: AI will replace
agents in the call centre, digital will supplant
shops staffed by people, augmented reality
will paint a picture more effectively than the
most experienced salesperson. That doesn’t
have to be the case. Used the right way tech-
nology can improve the human connection
between a business and its customers.
Nationwide is at the forefront of this
movement, shoring up its position at the top
of the UKCSI with market-leading innova-
tions in the customer experience. Customer
Insight interviewed Tony Prestedge, Chief
Relationships & Distribution Officer, to find
out more.
MAKING THE CONNECTION
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F E A T U R E
Nationwide have 12% of the market for
mortgages and savings in the UK and, while
traditionally a relatively small player in the
current account market, in the six months
before I spoke to Prestedge they accounted
for one in five new current account openings.
That growth is driven by the success of
their digital tools, and the potential that
digital gives them to grow beyond what their
physical branch footprint would allow.
That’s important because, unlike most
mutuals, Nationwide goes toe to toe with the
banks in offering current accounts as well
as mortgages, savings, and investments. In
order to take on the banks and be credible
in those markets they need a solid digital
offering, and they need to make sure it’s
well integrated into their overall customer
experience.
Balancing the old and the new
Nationwide is used to being a leader in
terms of customer satisfaction. It consistently
performs well in the UKCSI*, the FRS, and
in its own internal surveys. It’s consistently
rated number one of the banks and
building societies with a major high street
presence, but that success brings its own
dangers. As Prestedge says, “The big risk
*The UK Customer Satisfaction Index is the national measure of customer satisfaction for the UK, covering 13 sectors including Financial Services.
You can find out more and and download the free executive summary at:
https://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/research-insight/uk-customer-satisfaction-index
is complacency…how do we make sure that
being number one doesn’t become the anchor
that drags us back rather than the thing
which propels us forward.”
In particular, he’s very conscious of
the potential for new entrants to disrupt
the banking sector, and reset what service
might look like. Disruption may come from
technology companies offering account
aggregation and other non-financial services
rather than from new financial suppliers per
se. It’s a fast changing market, which has
seen customer usage of Nationwide’s mobile
offering increase by 700% in two years, but
it’s also a world in which customers still
value a high street branch presence.
disruptors entering the market. The answer
is to make sure that technology works not to
replace personal service, but to support it.
There’s a delicate balance to be struck
between continuing to meet the needs of cus-
tomers when they want a face to face branch
service, and embracing new technologies fast
enough to anticipate the danger of potential
“Customers are happy to adopt the technology, but they want to continue to have a personal relationship, we’re not seeing a movement away from branch.”
“We think about service leadership being enabled by
technology, made meaningful by people.”
As we’ve seen in many other industries,
you can’t just assume that the brave new
digital world is populated by a different type
of customer. Although 25% of Nationwide’s
members now have a mobile relationship as
the dominant channel, there’s a reason that
“omnichannel” has been such a buzzword—
Nationwide see 70% overlap across channels,
depending on what customers are doing. It’s
not so much the case that there are “digital”
customers and “face to face” customers;
more that most customers are both depending
on whether they want to check a balance or
get some financial advice. Customers might
check their balance in an app once a day, go
online once a week, and visit a branch only
once every couple of years, but they need to
be able to do all three on their terms.
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F E A T U R E
Customer focus & staff engagement
Despite embracing technology, Nationwide
is a business with its values rooted firmly in
heritage. It remains a mutual, owned by its
members rather than shareholders, and that
has a clear impact on the way customers are
seen by the organisation and its staff. The
focus on members creates a unique culture,
in which people are willing to go further in
order to serve customers better. Ultimately,
Nationwide’s people understand that the
organisation’s right to exist is dependent on
customers remaining loyal.
The technology
Most of us have probably become used to
relying on apps for the majority of our day to
day banking needs such as checking balances
or making payments. Is it just about making
it as easy as possible for customers to self
serve? For Nationwide it’s also about putting
the organisation in closer touch with its
customers.
“We make a profit, and we’re heavily regulated, but we don’t need to earn quarterly profits. That does create a different culture, and a different feel.”
“The mobile experience is like having a digital branch in your pocket, but at the other end of
that there is a person.”
“We spend a huge amount of time with our members, from the boardroom downwards.”
“Our people drive the design of our processes.”
“We have complex products, and it’s our people that bring
them to life.”
As well as formal survey work, customers
are engaged through online chat panels and
monthly talkbacks in branches, making sure
that their needs are kept front of mind.
Staff are at the core of Nationwide’s
strong performance in customer satisfaction.
Processes are necessary in any business,
and perhaps particularly in highly regulated
financial services markets, but good processes
are driven by people. Processes should never
get in the way of serving customers, and it’s
very easy for that to happen unless they are
The banking app, for any institution, is
now one of customers’ most regularly used
apps. Done right, a mobile app can mean
that you are continually present with the
customer, deepening the relationship. As
well as improving the customer experience,
that obviously has potential benefits in terms
of cross-selling. Nationwide is looking to
integrate technologies such as WhatsApp and
video chat, as well as tools such as a digital
vault for documents, so that they are con-
stantly present with the customer.
Where Nationwide’s investment in tech-
nology is really striking, however, is in its
innovative in-branch video. They’re work-
ing hard on integrating technology into the
physical environment. “Nationwide NOW” is
a video link service which connects custom-
ers in branch, anywhere in the country, to
help and advice. I was given a chance to try
the technology out, speaking from London
to an advisor in Scotland, and I was really
impressed both by the quality of the connec-
tion, and by how much more human a face to
face interaction is than one over the phone.
Nationwide recently held a “Big Conversa-
tion” to gather feedback from all staff about
things that get in the way of serving mem-
bers, and what they would like to change.
That kind of bottom-up approach to process
design is much more engaging for staff,
and much more likely to result in processes
that work for staff and customers. The same
principle is at work in the half hour section of
every weekly “Heartbeat” exec meeting which
is dedicated to hearing from frontline staff
about how their week has been. It makes sure
that processes are designed more bottom-up
than top-down, and people have a genuine
voice in how they should work or how they
should be changed.
Employee engagement, and trust in senior
management, is very high. Prestedge is confi-
dent that translates to a level of discretionary
effort on behalf of customers that you would
not see in other businesses.
Why are staff so important to customers?
Just like in every business, their ability to
respond when things go wrong (as they inev-
itably will with 15 million customers) is vital.
They also have a key role to play to humanise
what can be an overwhelming industry with
complicated products and, necessarily, lots of
specialist language.
regularly scrutinized and challenged by the
people who have to put them into practice.
F E A T U R E
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It’s a really simple, practical, solution
to the problem of resourcing branches with
advisors to cope with varying demand; and
it’s one that preserves jobs as well as making
for an improved branch experience. Why
wouldn’t all banks adopt it? Unlike many of
their competitors, Nationwide branch staff
are incentivised on service and efficiency,
but not sales. That means that they are very
accepting of a customer talking to someone
else by video link, where another bank
might encounter cultural resistance and
protectiveness.
Moving forward, Nationwide is trialling
other technologies such as home-based video
and chat integrated within the app. The
unifying feature of all of these trials is that,
for the first time in generations, technology
is starting to bring customers closer to staff
rather than further away.
The future of customer service?
Where does the future of customer service
lie? The rest of us may not be able to replicate
some of the ingredients of Nationwide’s
successful recipe. We’re not all mutually
owned, and we don’t all have a tradition
of service leadership dating back decades.
There are, however, many principles that we
can adopt that apply to any business in any
industry.
Some of these principles are staples
for readers of Customer Insight: engaged
employees are a necessary precondition
for happy customers, processes should be
judged mainly on their ability to create great
experiences for customers, healthy businesses
are built around long-term profits rather
than short-term profits.
Most strikingly of all, Nationwide gives us
a sketch (if not quite a blueprint) for what a
“The days of big projects, where you said two years in advance ‘this is what I want to do, and
I’m prepared to wait two years for it to deploy’, are gone. Now you’re putting technology in the
hands of colleagues, let them figure out with members the
best way to deploy and use it.”
“It’s about technology bringing people together, rather than
getting in the way.”
rosy future of customer service might look
like as digital technologies become ever more
embedded in day to day relationships. It’s a
future in which technology brings us closer
to customers, instead of pushing them away.
One in which we embrace the tools which are
most familiar and convenient to customers,
using them to build stronger, more human,
relationships.
Empowering staff, building trust, and
bringing people closer together is a strategy
that is paying off for Nationwide—can you
say the same for your technology adoption?
If call centres took the relationship away
from local branches, and the internet made
the relationship more distant and focused
on self service, the latest technologies can
help put people back in touch with people.
It’s not necessarily about re-inventing the
wheel. Where existing technology is well-
established, like WhatsApp, it may make
more sense to use that rather than spending a
fortune on developing an offering that is less
familiar to customers.
These trials are all about a “test and
learn” model, experimenting and developing
systems that work for customers. That in
itself drives energy and [email protected]
Stephen Hampshire
Client Manager
TLF Research
F E A T U R E
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