When it comes to customer service, we’re deluded. 80% of organisations believe they deliver excellent customer service, but only 8% of their customers agree. This is a fact that leaders at Santander understood well and, with declining performance against multiple measures, propelled them to act to reverse the statistics. The key, they discovered, lay in getting frontline employees to take responsibility for how a customer feels. Get an inside view of their transformative journey through the award-winning Customer FIRST programme, which has seen a tremendous turnaround of ‘Britain’s worst bank’ (The Guardian, February 2011) to scooping the Moneywise ‘Most Improved Customer Service’ award (June 2012). In this 30 minute webinar you will discover: -The principles on which the award-winning Santander Customer FIRST programme was built: the 5 employee drivers to customer devotion -Focusing on customers pays more in the long-term than focusing solely on profit or product -Identify what’s going wrong and how to get it right Speaker: Sebastian Bailey, PhD, President, Mind Gym Inc.

1. Paying attention
How to take your customers
from deluded to devoted
Sebastian Bailey, PhD
President, Mind Gym Inc.
@DrSebBailey

2. Service
matters
Paying
attention:
in practice
Paying
attention
What’s
wrong with
the current
state?
Drivers of
devotion
2

3. Service matters
The evidence is unequivocal: focusing on customers pays more in the longterm than focusing solely on profit or product.
02 Competitive edge
01 Loyalty
04 Reputation matters
55% of business leaders expect
to compete on service in 2020,
compared with 9% on price.
Customer loyalty is key
to commercial success.
95% of customers say they would
talk about a negative experience
on social media.
A 5% increase in customer retention
can increase profits by 25-50%.
What drives loyalty?
• Reciprocity
03 Return on sales
Companies that make customer
service a priority see 12 times the
return on sales than those who
don’t.
• It creates a subconscious desire
for customers to return the favour
05 The cost of complacency
86% of customers have quit doing
business with a company over a
bad customer experience.
3

4. What’s going wrong?
Front line aren’t
present, let
alone prescient.
4

5. Why do customers leave?
Sources: McKinsey (2006); American Society for Quality (2000)
5

6. What’s going wrong?
Front line aren’t
present, let
alone prescient.
The problem is
everyone else.
6

7. The problem is everyone else
7

8. What’s going wrong?
Front line aren’t
present, let
alone prescient.
The problem is
everyone else.
Too much stick
and not enough
carrot.
Front line managers
are led to care more
about targets than
people.
Leaders don’t talk
to customers.
Customer service
comes first, but so do
safety, sales, supplier
management...
8

9. 5 drivers of customer devotion
9

10. Serve colleagues as well as customers
Source: Schnieder et al (2009)
10

11. Developing a customer service culture
01
Pay attention
02
Build trust
03
Take ownership
• Be mentally
present
• Listen actively
• Talk human
• Show empathy
• Be authentic
• Be
accountable
• Manage
expectations
• See it through
11

12. Take ownership
Customers will report positive service
experiences even after a failed service
recovery when employees take
ownership of the problem and
effectively manage expectations.
76% of companies leading in customer
service have devolved decision making
to their staff.
76%
of leading
companies
Service 2020: Megatrends for the decade ahead (2011). Economist Intelligence Unit.
12

13. Developing a customer service culture
01
Pay attention
02
Build trust
03
Take ownership
04
Add value
• Be mentally
present
• Listen actively
• Talk human
• Show empathy
• Be authentic
• Be
accountable
• Manage
expectations
• See it through
• Recommend
• Be compelling
• Innovate
13

14. Add value
31% of customers’ positive experiences of support
comes from staff making recommendations
Customers are more likely to respond if:
Understanding
Expertise
Social proof
They believe their needs have been
listened to and are being met.
They believe that the person
they’re talking to is an expert.
They believe lots of other people
do the same thing.
14

15. Developing a customer service culture
01
Pay attention
02
Build trust
03
Take ownership
04
Add value
• Be mentally
present
• Listen actively
• Talk human
• Show empathy
• Be authentic
• Be
accountable
• Manage
expectations
• See it through
• Recommend
• Be compelling
• Innovate
05
Coach to flourish
15

16. Coach to flourish
Chhokar, J. & Wallin J. (1984). Improving safety through applied behaviour analysis. Journal of Safety Research, 14 (4)
Mortimer, M. (2006). Performance Management: Work Worth Doing. Quintiles Transnational & SuccessFactors. Bracknell.
Becker, L. (1978). Joint effect of feedback and goal setting on performance – Field-study of residential energy-conservation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63: 428.
16

17. Customer FIRST programme
•
•
Aim: To turn around the decline in customer service and so make
Santander the bank people want to bank with.
Scope: 11,000 branch staff
17

18. Learning bites 1 & 2
See it, solve it
See it, Solve it helped the Branch Managers see
the real good, bad or ugly impact their behaviour
was having in their branches and so do
something about it.
Trust me
‘Trust me’ helped them make the right decision by digging
deeper into what each of their customers – internal and
external – values.
18

19. Learning bites 3 & 4
How can I help you?
Power in your hands
How can I help you? helped Branch Managers become
the brand’s guardians, nipping complaints in the bud
and preventing escalations.
Power in your hands gave Branch Managers the coaching
skills they needed to continue to do this, sustaining their
own behaviour change and ensuring
it spreads through their branch too.
19

20. Customer FIRST has helped managers across the
board
As a result
of Customer
FIRST, BMs
agree that…
Attendance was
typically 88%
Response rate
for feedback
was typically
85%
20

21. The results
Winner: Best National Brach Network
Your Money Direct Awards 2012 & 2013
Winner: Most improved bank for customer service in UK
Moneywise Customer Service Awards 2012
“
“
Improving the service we offer at Santander UK is our top
priority... We do have more to do and continue to focus
relentlessly on improving the levels of service we provide to our
customers.
Steve Pateman, Head of UK Banking
21

22. Service improvements
23%
Reduced banking complaints by 23% from the
first half of 2012
Independent consumer surveys show
improved satisfaction, with our FRS score
rising to 57%, Santander UK saw a significant
reduction in the gap to the top 3 performers
over the last year.
22

23. New York ● London ● Dubai ● Singapore
1 million participants | 1500 companies | 280 coaches | 40 countries | 4 offices
www.themindgym.com
● @themindgym ● @DrSebBailey