顧客サービスにおける卓越性：カリブ海諸国のリテール金融サービス

Abstract

Benchmarks for Excellence in Caribbean Retail Financial Services evaluates multiple fronts of retail financial services operations that have the greatest impact on customer service excellence. For example, certain marketing programs call for coordinated process interactions between frontline employees and back-office staff to avoid sabotaging customer service expectations. Marketing must take care not to set unrealistic customer expectations, which could eventually lead to poor customer perceptions. Human resources practices that focus on hiring, training, career path development and performance management foster employee retention, which promotes continuity in customer relationships. Moreover, the varied application of technology across the industry reveals an important area of focus for improved efficiency aiding in customer retention.

The intensely competitive nature of the retail-banking industry prompted members of the Barbadian retail financial services industry to join together to explore common "pain points" experienced by retail banks and credit unions in their search for customer service excellence. This benchmarking report was part of a "pilot" program in the Caribbean to demonstrate the efficacy of benchmarking as a productivity improvement tool. While the information presented in this report is particularly relevant to the Caribbean market, many guiding practices are transferable to the broader financial services industry.

This report offers insights into the critical need for a cohesive interplay among back-office staff and frontline employees for building and supporting customer relationships. Moreover, clear-headed marketing strategies, targeted human resources initiatives, as well as technology consolidation and training emerged as essential aspects of a holistic customer service experience.

Chapters in this report highlight best practices and metrics for marketing and sales excellence; service excellence; human resources and management excellence; and transactional excellence.

Table of Contents

• Executive Overview
• PROJECT BACKGROUND
• STUDY METHODOLOGY & BENCHMARK CLASS
• REPORT STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION
• KEY FINDINGS AND INSIGHTS
• Sales and Marketing: Focus marketing efforts on customer relationships and leverage all staff to execute marketing strategies to capture not only new customers but also increase the depth of assets within existing accounts
• Customer Service Excellence: Design all processes, both front and back office, to improve the overall customer experience and customer service levels
• Human Resources: Design innovative ways to manage people, provide incentives to ensure behaviors are aligned with strategies, and create HR processes that measure and align capabilities with intended performance standards
• Back Office Processing: Utilize technology and shared services to streamline back office processes, improve speed and accuracy and further enhance the overall customer experience

• PATH FORWARD
• Introduction
• Marketing and Sales Excellence

• OVERVIEW

• ADOPT A MARKETING AND SALES STRATEGY WHICH FOCUS ON CUSTOMERS, NOT PRODUCTS
• Leverage a depth-based marketing approach, focusing on relationships not products, to increase sales to existing customers
• Focus on the entire customer lifecycle, e.g., cradle to grave, and customize the product line to the lifecycle to maximize product revenue and customer retention
• Build relationships around your most significant products to raise customer-switching costs and make it easier to cross sell to them to increase wallet-share
• Utilize formalized account management processes to build lasting relationships and identify customer needs
• Clearly define market positioning both internally and externally to ensure consistent communication with the market and in-branch customers
• Employ marketing campaigns that are both defensive and offensive in nature to retain existing customers and acquire new ones

• UTILIZE ALL STAFF TO DELIVER PERSONAL SALES OPPORTUNITIES
• Train tellers and other frontline staff to identify sales opportunities with existing customers and make referrals to sales
• Foster customer intimacy through personalized marketing campaigns to existing customers
• Leverage mobile sales force to increase loan revenue, build long-term relationships, and improve customer satisfaction
• Take a "clicks not bricks" approach and use online banking and ATMs instead of additional infrastructure investments to grow revenues and assets
• Service Excellence

• OVERVIEW

• DESIGN CUSTOMER SERVICE PROCESSES AROUND CUSTOMER DELIGHT
• Create an intentional and consistent customer experience as part of your branding strategy to retain more customers
• Use specific language among the staff to reinforce the intended brand and convey a positive customer experience with the company' s mission in mind
• Provide a personalized service to create a memorable experience
• Assign an employee or several employees who can assist customers as they wait, encourage them to use the ATM, or otherwise expedite their service
• Organize your teller lines by types of services and level of customers to get people to the appropriate staff person more quickly and enhance the overall customer experience
• Redirect customer calls from the local branches to a central call center to speed up the in-person transaction response times in local branches

• DEVELOP CUSTOMER-ORIENTED EMPLOYEES
• Incorporate regular team meetings among the branch office staff to reinforce desired attitudes and motivate the team to deliver excellent service
• Instill a customer service orientation among operational and functional staff to speed up customer transactions

• DESIGN CUSTOMER SERVICE MEASURES TO ENSURE ALIGNMENT WITH CUSTOMER EXCELLENCE GOALS
• Develop service standards and disseminate them widely to reinforce employee performance expectations
• Employ frequent customer satisfaction surveys, including surveying satisfaction with the competition, to ensure customer trends are identified quickly and potential opportunities are revealed

• CUSTOMER AND TECHNOLOGY PRACTICES
• Motivate customers to use alternative electronic transactions rather than teller transactions
• Encourage customers to use technology at the point of transaction to improve adoption rates
• Human Resources and Management Excellence

• OVERVIEW

• STAFFING AND DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES
• Leverage both technical and behavioral competencies in order to hire the right people
• Employ job rotation programs to allow staff to experience different roles and a means to keep them engaged and retained
• Leverage alternate career paths to reduce costs and maximize employee contributions

• PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
• Link compensation to individual performance to motivate higher performance
• Tie employee and customer satisfaction directly to manager performance management processes, as part of a balanced scorecard approach
• Require responsible staff members to develop an action plan based on identified improvement areas to ensure that measures are used for continuous improvements
• Engage employees in regular goal setting for themselves with follow-up coaching sessions to keep employees motivated
• Employ motivational approaches with customer-facing employees to inspire world-class customer service

• TRAINING
• Leverage Computer-Based Training to improve training effectiveness and reduce training costs
• Use shared services and outsourced training models to improve the cost effectiveness of training
• Transactional Excellence

• OVERVIEW

• BACK OFFICE PROCESSING
• Use an integrated, shared services approach and move transactional activities out of the branches to boost productivity and increase the focus of the branches on the customer
• Use concurrent work processing (e.g., workflows) to create technology that will reduce paperwork, shrink timeframes and increase customer satisfaction
• Use OCR and imaging to improve check-processing speed and enhance overall customer service

• LOAN PROCESSING
• Exploit the loan process to cross sell to customers who have products at other branches and to learn how to better address their needs
• Use telephone-based screening and pre-qualifying for loan applications and make loan applications appointment-based to reduce customer wait time and decrease loan processing time
• Create an expedited application process for existing loan customers to shorten application cycle time
• Hold loan officers accountable for the on-time payment of their borrowers within the first few months of the loan to reduce delinquency rates