The Modern Mutual - Crafting Exceptional Customer Experiences

Building Societies often boast great NPS scores, but how do they ensure they are really offering an exceptional customer experience?

Customers and brokers expect more than just friendly service. To ensure a great customer experience, technology, innovation, and customer-centricity must be embraced.

Choice: Give customers choice in channels, products, and services, providing them with options that are relevant to them.Develop and expand channel, product and service options based on customer preferences, leveraging insights from customer personas and journey mapping.

"I want the Society to stay relevant for our members and for members to feel like they have a choice with how they interact with us. I want them to feel like from a Financial Services perspective we have their best interests at heart and they can trust us." Chris Hunter, Deputy CEO of Darlington Building Society

Timely and proactive service: Anticipate and meet customer needs with timely and supportive assistance. Implement a system that provides a unified customer view, configure the Operating Model to respond to data insights, and automate responses using integrated communication platforms.

"The pandemic highlighted the importance of real-time personal service, especially when customers are facing challenges, such as mortgage payment difficulties. People remember the way Cambridge treated and supported customers during the COVID pandemic." - Peter Burrows, CEO of Cambridge Building Society

Personalisation: To create highly personalised experiences that foster trust and loyalty, tailor services, offers, and communications to match individual customer behaviours and preferences. Harness data to gain insights into customer behaviour and preferences, adopting an agile Operating Model to enable real-time personalisation.

"Customers appreciate the personal, authentic, and empowering experience when dealing with the Society. Customers are amazed when they ring us and someone answers the phone and there’s no switchboard." - Steve Fletcher, CEO of Vernon Building Society 

Simplicity and convenience: Streamline processes and eliminate complexities to ensure customers feel interactions are effortless and enjoyable. Analyse existing processes for bottlenecks, manual steps, and opportunities for Straight Through Processing (STP).

"Being a Modern Mutual means more than just technology. It is about aligning behaviours and culture with a focus on good outcomes for customers, embracing automation while preserving a seamless customer experience, and reevaluating the relevance of traditional branches. It's a balancing act that utilises appropriate technology to empower the workforce to put consumers at the heart of every decision." - Paul Tilley, CEO of Earl Shilton Building Society

Quality and positive outcomes: Consistently deliver high service standards, meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and ensuring good outcomes for customers, allowing Consumer Duty requirements to be met with confidence. Invest in ongoing colleague training, skills, and knowledge, whilst modernising the tech stack to enforce SLAs and support the generation of customer insights.

“I want employees to have more time to provide good outcomes to the customer rather than doing lots of manual work. I want the customer experience and the employee experience to be as frictionless as possible.” - Phillippa Cardno, CEO of Newbury Building Society 

Member value: Ensure members feel the added value of being part of the Society. Define and communicate the value-added member experience and consider digital delivery of the member and community experience in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.

"To me, membership signifies access to an organisation that offers valuable benefits. Currently, mutual membership primarily comes through the ability to influence through voting and some level of control in the organisation. However, for the majority of members, these aspects aren't motivators for joining a Society. As a sector, we must do a better job of articulating the true essence of membership." Dan Jones, Finance Director and Secretary of Mansfield Building Society

Continuous Improvement and engagement: Although achieving high satisfaction scores is commendable, tracking KPIs and SLAs that demonstrate an exceptional customer experience is essential. Analyse survey scores, feedback, and MI, establish baselines and targets, and set ambitious goals for continuous enhancement.

"Data will be key to the future success of a modern mutual. It's not just about collecting information; it's about leveraging it effectively for continuous improvement, informed decisions, and enhanced customer and colleague experiences. And of course, it’s about keeping that data secure, to protect our members." Iain Lister, IT Executive at Mansfield Building Society

Modernisation will enable you to deliver personalisation, tailored products, and exceptional service - the core benefits of mutuality.