Case Study: HBOS 

Situation

The Halifax Building Society merged with the Bank of Scotland in 2001, and by 2006 it had achieved excellent market share growth, taking on the ‘big four’ retail banks. However, it was scoring poorly on customer satisfaction and recommendation levels. Colleague morale was slipping backwards, customer service advocacy was low, and staff needed increasing coaching and help with the ‘sales machine’ and work pressure.

Challenge

The following challenges were identified by leaders within the Retail arm of HBOS.

  • The creation of new vision and motivation at branch level (1,000 branches in the UK)
  • Enabling bank staff to enhance their customers’ experience so that more customers would use HBOS as their primary bank
  • Improving staff attitudes to lead generation and customer objections
  • Educating staff in emotional intelligence, especially in relation to customer needs
  • Sharing ideas and formulating plans in every branch
  • Increasing customer retention rates and radically improving customer satisfaction
  • Improving banking functionality beyond that of the competition

Solution

HBOS contracted Interaction and its training partners in an evolving two-stage, 3-year change programme for 17,000 staff (Regional and Area Managers/Area Mortgage Managers/Area Managers of Regulated Sales, Branch Managers, Business Managers, Customer Managers, Banking Advisers & Customer Advisers, Mortgage Advisers, Mortgage Reviewers, and Personal Financial Advisers). A Branch Leadership Programme, followed by a Skills & Behaviours Programme, was rolled out across the UK from 2006 to 2009 and focused on four major elements.

  • Getting the basics right
  • Delighting customers when it matters
  • Shifting attitude to be at one’s best, with ongoing coaching for sustainability
  • Standing out from the competition

HBOS chose Interaction over other specialists because of its demonstrable success in other companies, involving both managers and front-line staff in radical cultural, attitudinal and behavioural change. It also asked Interaction to train more than 50 HBOS internal trainers and create capacity for a vigorous internal embedding programme within HBOS.

Results

  • The Colleague Opinion Survey showed a 14% increase in Service Advocacy in the first year alone.
  • Customer Satisfaction Figures by the end of 2006 showed that HBOS had moved above the big 4 banks and they continued stay above from that point.
  • ‘Perfect Visit’ reports resulted in an 84.8% satisfaction rate following the launch of the training in 2006; 85.6% in 2007; and 91.1% by 2008.
  • Colleague Moral Index showed that 90% of Branch Managers felt their leadership had improved due to the training
  • Staff significantly met customer needs in the events leading to the Lloyds merger.
  • Our Sales programme for HBOS delivered an immediate significant increase in product-per-buyer.