Green bank gets the nod from Orange Index

“We are enormously encouraged by the fact that Nedbank is leading the banking sector when it comes to delighting clients,” says Nedbank Group CE Tom Boardman.

“With banking becoming increasingly commoditised, service becomes an obvious differentiator. Consumers are likely to be the real winners as competition in this category intensifies,” he says.

The banking industry's image has been under the spotlight in the last 18 months, with the Competition Commission enquiry highlighting the perception that bank charges in South Africa are excessive.

The fact that Nedbank was the only bank to reduce retail banking fees during this period may have contributed to an improvement in client perceptions. Fee reductions are part of a bigger plan.

“Whilst we acknowledge that we still have some way to go to reach the levels of service that will truly make us a great place to bank, these results suggest the various initiatives that have been adopted are beginning to pay dividends,” says Boardman.

One such initiative is the World Class Service (WCS) program, introduced in 2005 to help Nedbank Retail achieve its vision of delivering the best client experience in the market. The initiative is founded on an extensive consultative process to determine client needs.

A key component of the program relies on CMAT, a sophisticated client management framework that has client centricity as its underlying premise. The framework, which is used by more than 700 organisations globally, includes a measurement component as part of its methodology. This allows the bank to benchmark itself against all CMAT users, among them world-class service organisations such as Westpac, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, American Express, Cathay Pacific, Daimler Chrysler, Nissan and Woolworths. The results of the second CMAT assessment, concluded recently, provide further validation that the bank is on the right track; it is now ranked in the top 25% of participants, a clear improvement on the initial assessment, conducted in November 2006.

Boardman points out that service is part of a bigger picture. “Keeping pace with the changing expectations of clients has required the continued renewal of the bank's service delivery strategy and the infrastructure to support it,” he says.

Intensive client research complements CMAT, and the results of the research informed the recently launched “Ask Once” Campaign, an initiative aimed at significantly improving the client experience by dealing with requests more effectively.

The objective of the campaign, which was launched on 16 September, is to provide clients, where feasible, with an on-the-spot response to a request. Where this is not possible, the staff member who was first approached by the client is expected to take ownership of the resolution process, ensuring the request is satisfactorily resolved and providing ongoing feedback until the matter is closed.

To demonstrate its commitment to service delivery, the bank donates R50 to a Nedbank approved charity every time it breaks the ‘Ask Once' promise.

As at 4 November, a total of 238 valid complaints had been received via the Ask Once channels, with R11900 paid to charities selected by clients. NSPCA, CANSA, NMCF, Cotlands and SA Red Cross are proving to be the most popular choices.

The Ask Once team is working on identifying problem areas across the organisation based on complaints data in order to drive continuous improvement.

Although the WCS program is providing many of the tools required for the delivery of world-class service, successful implementation relied on first getting the basics right. This has included restructuring the business for increased client focus, enhancing the product and service offering and making a substantial investment in banking infrastructure.

While the latest Orange Index places Nedbank ahead of the pack when it comes to service delivery, there is an acknowledgement throughout the ranks that much work lies ahead to further improve service levels in pursuit of world-class benchmarks.