Onboarding:The profitable management of

newly–acquired customers

Akvizice zákazníků 2011

Prague, 19 May

Introduction

• Mungo Dunnett Associates– Team of 32, based in Oxford– Specialist retail banking consultancy– Worked with all major UK banks– 40 FS organisations in UK, Middle East and

Central Europe (including Czech Republic)– I lead our projects in marketing, revenue

generation and commercial strategy

• The benefit of working with all these organisations: extensive knowledge of what actually happens as they implement strategies

Everybody says they do it…

But what do the customers say?

The happy world of customer focus

Let’s start with a depressing quote

“I hate banks. They’re all the same… They only bother with you when they think they can sell you something, and the rest of the time it’s like pulling teeth… They really couldn’t care less”

MDA customer research

How were you 3 years ago?

Fewer than 10% of banks in Western and Central Europe say that they can currently carry out effective sales across a customer’s entire product portfolio

Datamonitor, 2008

Czech financial services since 2008

• Everybody talking about customer focus– With big discussions on segmentation and

retention

But this is how I see the main FS organisations:

1. Poor at building relationships, poor at sustaining them

2. Poor at getting information, poor at using it

3. Dominant sales culture, poor training

4. Focusing on online and distribution partners

How do customers feel in 2011?

After I buy the first product there is almost no personal contact from the bank

By the time my product matures – or I need another product – I have no relationship with the bank

I might as well start again with another organisation

Czech research, March 2011

How did we get here? 20 years of profit strategies

• Dominate the customer’s product options– Takeover of other product manufacturers– Bundling (so customers have to buy products A & B)

• Continual ‘push’ selling– Sales targets given to front–line staff– Heavy direct marketing

• Get close to the customer– Heavy brand expenditure– Customer advice– CRM and capture of customer information– Intensive staff training

Was everybody sure they were doing the right thing?

Two things are going wrong here: 1) Trust

• What type of organisation do customers want?

Him?

Or him?

Two things are going wrong here: 2) Commitment

Promising

this

And delivering that

Just a minute: what are you actually doing?

The customer can tell you don’t mean it

• Customers are not fools– They are extremely sensitive to false promises,

advertising and poor service experiences– They come to you with uncertainty– What have they heard about you?– What do your customers tell their friends about you?

• So: if you want to make a particular approach to a segment (“we are the FS specialist for you”)…– Can you do it?– Is it all talk – or is the experience actually good?

• How good is a new customer’s experience at your organisation?

Your “best” staff…

• Are much better than your average staff

• Are very good at listening to customers and understanding their needs

• Do not necessarily have exceptional product knowledge – but will know when to get help rather than pretend

• Will counteract “bank” images with personalised language and empathy…

What this means for the way you handle customers

• Individual members of staff can make a real difference

• Incentives and training are best focused on customer responsiveness rather than products

• Role models (individual members of staff and top performing Branches) are crucial

• Spending time in a customer facing role is critical – as this gives staff time to mature and recognise a variety of customer types and demands

Key staff requirements

• Relationship–building can’t be done by everyone– Get the right people in the role

• Hire people who can do this – and who want to– There is little point in forcing people through training

courses if they did not join the organisation to sell

• The best sales staff find it easy to build relationships – Good listeners – not just good talkers

• They also need to be believeable experts– People who the customer can trust

Often the real problem is timing

• We all know how annoying a badly timed sales pitch is– Getting rid of inappropriate sales activity is vital to

building customer trust

• But timing is also a crucial tool, if you can use it properly– Example 1: Taking your time (999)– Example 2: Acting quickly (balance change)– Example 3: The warm customer

• Timing needs training– And management information– And intuition

And: the changing profile of telephony staff

• ‘Industrial’ telephony processes do not work – Strangers talking to strangers– But real difficulty for the bigger banks in adapting

(1) their working practices and support systems and (2) their recruitment, training and motivational practices

• The necessary staff skills are not simply ‘sales’– Though it is certainly not just service skills – which is

what most banks traditionally have focused on

• Key skills are now in listening and negotiating– And the emotional intelligence to use these correctly for

a focused commercial purpose

It’s in the hands of the staff

• Relationship building is one of those ‘marketing’ activities that often gets a bad name– “Something they’ve been working on in Head Office”– “Another marketing strategy we’ve been given”

• Relationships will die if it there are not in the hands of the customer–facing staff– Good practice means treating customers differently– It means knowing who you are dealing with– And then handling them in the right way– The first customers of a relationship programme are

the front line staff…

Customers look to your staff, not Head Office

• For customers, the only reality that matters is the reality of how the organisation treats them– It has nothing to do with marketing messages– Or generic communications– Or the organisation talking about how interesting and

wonderful it is

• So: what is your onboarding customer experience?– Speed and convenience? Excellent customer service?

High quality advice?

• Whatever it is, your staff need to know what is expected of them – and they need to deliver it

Summary

What effective onboarding really means

• It means controlling the way that your customer see your organisation– Each customer contact is precious– An opportunity to make a positive impression– Or to confirm their worst fears that you are ‘the same

as every other bank’

• It means getting customers willingly to give you the critical information– What they like (and don’t like)– Who they are– What they want next…

The job is never finished

• The job is not finished when the sale is made– That is when the relationship starts

– The onboarding process should be the same as the experience of being a customer after that

• Retention… cross–selling… referral business… customer satisfaction… profit…– They are all linked together

– They are linked to a sense of trust and relationship

• Usually in personal terms– “I know them” (as individuals)

– “They know me” …

The opportunity

• Who can take relationship leadership in this country?

Mungo Dunnett Associates11 Polstead Road Oxford OX2 6TW England

Tel: (44) 1865 311966 Email: info@md-as.com Web: www.md-as.com

Questions?