Quality
Category: Strategy Implementation
General understanding
Customer satisfaction, as such, should be part of an efficient branch management, and it ha to be measured and monitored. The question then is to find how to do it. There are several available tools. One can be the use of surveys, another the number and characteristics of errors and claims, or it can be also a precise analysis of the operations made with the customers. All the points are detailed below.
Errors
The number of errors, their nature, their frequency and their financial impact are very useful information tools. A precise recording of errors should be done at a branch level, with a reporting going to the management of the branch as well as to the head-office, in that last case on a more summarised format. Targets should be given in terms of reducing the number of errors, with the way it will be done and a timing to do it.
Claims
Following an error, a bad advice or behaviour, a customer can raise a claim. It can have a financial impact, in case of a loss for the client, or require the branch to answer the customer. Whatever the circumstances, claims are a good indicator of the level of the branch’s quality. They have to be registered and analysed, in order for the branch to assess its level of services and improve it, if necessary.
Analysis by branch
Records of errors and claims are given to the branch managers and appear, as a few summarised figures, in the reports sent to the head-office. Comments may go with these quantitative reports, explaining specific situations or incidents, and giving prospects of improvements.
The bank, at a central level, should however compare the figures coming from the different branches, and establish a benchmark. If, for instance, one of the Saint-Petersburg branches shows good absolute figures and is the best of the group in terms of errors and claims, the benchmark could be, within a certain time range, to reach the Saint-Petersburg branch level.
Analysis by salespeople
A more detailed analysis by salespeople can also be done. It will be under the branch responsibility to monitor the teams in order to show better results. A benchmark internal to the branch can then be used, for instance in working group intending to motivate the salespeople to a better service.
Details by sector, product, customer and employee
The more details the more efficient analysis, as long as the reports are well designed and easy to read and understand. Specific problems can appear for instance a concentration of errors with a product or with a client. In the case of the product, it could result from a system or back-office issue, which will have to be addressed and solved. As for a problem with a specific client, the branch commercial manager could discuss in length the question with the salesperson in charge, to understand the roots of the problem, find adequate solutions, even proposing compensation to the client to show a commercial willingness to improve the relationship.