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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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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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.

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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 enthusiasm.stephenhampshire@leadershipfactor.com

Stephen Hampshire

Client Manager

TLF Research

F E A T U R E

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