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