The report ‘
A Question of Trust: the Business Impact of Customer Service in the Finance sector’, launched on the 19th October 2013 in London, provides a blueprint to help UK organisations in the financial sector rebuild their reputation.
In the presence of key financial leaders, panellists Mark Garnier MP, Eric Leenders, Executive Director of Retail British Bankers’ Association and Lorraine Taylor, Head of Learning & Development at RBS discussed the outcomes of the report with Joanna Causon, the CEO of the Institute of Customer service.
The loss of trust in UK financial services companies is a serious threat to the sector’s pivotal status in the economy. The report shows that organisations in the sector with higher customer satisfaction benefit from greater customer loyalty, recommendation and reputation.
Trust in banks halved between 2008 and 2013, according to the Edelmen Trust Barometer, and just over half (51 per cent) of respondents to the CBI Intelligence First – Business Trust, 2013, report, thought that banks were ‘untrustworthy’, identifying customer service as the main driver of consumer trust in banking.
These studies reinforce the results of the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), a biannual survey conducted by the Institute of Customer Service, further strengthening the link between customer service, trust and loyalty.
The report provides further evidence that improving the customer experience is directly correlated to the perception of a company’s reputation. It also increases the likelihood that customers remain loyal and continue to recommend the organisation to others.
Jo Causon, CEO of the
Institute of Customer Service, commented:
“Individual organisations can only do so much to counteract the damage to the finance sector done by the financial crisis and its repercussions. But the good news for banks and other finance sector players is that customer service offers an opportunity to repair relationships, leading to increased loyalty, recommendation and reputation. To do this the leaders of organisations need to make a clear and unambiguous commitment to customer service which is translated into the design of products and services and a consistent customer experience.”
“Reputation is a fragile asset, and in an era of increased competition, failure to deliver consistent customer service means an increased risk of losing customers.”
The report makes a number of recommendations for key areas of focus for financial services organisations:
• Ensuring customer service expertise exists at board level and is prioritised as a board issue
• Identifying the aspects of customer service which drive satisfaction, trust and reputation
• Developing accurate metrics to measure customer experience and reporting regularly to the board
• Benchmarking customer service performance and comparing with the leaders in other sectors
• Speeding up customer experience (Banking) or improving online experience (Insurance)
• Regularly measuring trust in your organisation
• Publishing customer satisfaction results to demonstrate commitment to excellence
• Developing a vision of how to serve customers that can be understood and followed by everyone in the organisation
Mark Garnier MP, a member of the Treasury Committee, commented:
“The competitiveness of our economy and the stability of our businesses largely depend on the health of the financial sector. Banks need to prove that they are implementing changes in order to regain customer trust. The report gives interesting insight on how rebuilding reputation and trust is achievable.”
Jo Causon added:
“At the heart of this report is the need for UK businesses to discuss and implement customer service at the highest level of decision making. Organisations that genuinely do this will be best placed to enhance their reputation with customers in the long term and reap the business benefits of doing so.”