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CASE STUDY INDEX

Service Super-heroes, Nedbank
Nedbank recently held its fourth Service Excellence Conference, where AskOnce Gold Awards were presented to three people for their outstanding customer service.

Treating Customers Fairly, Skandia UK
Carolina Buchanan is the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) representative for the team. It's her responsibility to find ways to make sure the team keep TCF in mind in everything they do.

Our ability to manage and grow our customers' savings and wealth is the primary source of our value as a business. We do this most effectively when we build long-term relationships that allow us to better understand individuals' or organisations' changing needs and respond to them accordingly. As part of this we have a set of commitments to our customers that are part of our Responsible Business Policy. Business units must:

  • Endeavour to deal with customers in a way that is open, honest and fair
  • Give the appropriate advice where permitted, to grow customers' assets in a way that meets their needs.
  • Sell and promote the Groups financial products in a way that is clear and transparent.
  • Ensure that they provide clear information to customers about how their funds are invested.
  • Facilitate and listen to customer feedback and act on it.
  • Rectify any errors that affect customers as quickly as possible (that are identified by the Group and are within its control).

We continue to invest time and resources in the way we deal with our customers - making sure the products and services we sell are marketed responsibly, ensuring our customers' money is safe from financial crime or simply ensuring that our customers receive a high quality of service whenever they come into contact with us.

Below we outline some of the key areas we focus on to ensure we meet our customers' needs.

Transparent marketing and selling

As a Group, we market and sell a wide array of different products and services. These range from life assurance and property and casualty insurance to savings and pensions. Ensuring we sell and market these products across the Group in an honest and transparent way is vital to building trust with our customers and retaining their business. For example, Skandia UK has recently been rationalising the number of products it runs to produce a clear and cohesive range of products.

Each business unit has its own process for signing-off all external marketing and communications materials. These sign-off processes at business unit level help us prevent the publication of material that could mislead our customers.

Preventing financial crime

We are committed to protecting our shareholders' funds and our customers' money from all forms of financial crime. The most important issues for us are preventing the Group from involvement in money laundering, fraud or bribery and corruption.

At Group level we have expanded and strengthened our Group risk and forensic policies. To tackle financial crime effectively, our employees are fully informed about their responsibilities and the role they play. Business units across the Group have been providing training to employees on financial crime issues. In addition, many business units have found new ways to combating financial crime. For example, to help protect against card fraud, Nedbank provides confirmation of transactions to cardholders on their mobile phones. This contributed to a 26 percent decrease in card fraud in 2008, compared with an increase of 39 percent for the South African card industry over the same period.

Providing high-level customer service

Volatile market conditions make it more important than ever to ensure that we meet our customers' needs. Ensuring customers receive the best possible service from us not only helps retain customers, but also builds their confidence in the business.

Mutual & Federal for example, run awards for employees who live the companies values and provide outstanding customer service. Letters of appreciation that have been received by customers are entered into a prize draw. Every month, the winning letter is published in the employee magazine and the winner receives a retail voucher in recognition of outstanding efforts.

More examples from 2008 can be found in the Customer section in the 2008 Annual Report.

Case Studies

Service Super-heroes, Nedbank

Nedbank recently held its fourth Service Excellence Conference, where AskOnce Gold Awards were presented to three people for their outstanding customer service. One of the winners, Pamela Pillay, a Call Agent at Nedbank's Contact Centre summed up what it felt like to win the award: "It really is amazing when you're made to feel that your are important to the business".

Treating Customers Fairly, Skandia UK

Carolina Buchanan is the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) representative for the team. It's her responsibility to find ways to make sure the team keep TCF in mind in everything they do. "We have designed a poster that highlights our TCF achievements. This helps us share best practice and makes sure we keep the focus on the action plans we've developed to resolve the highlighted issues."

The team is surrounded by visual reminders of all these initiatives, and team leader, Sharon Lewis believes this is why they have been embedded so successfully. "The team is being constantly reminded of what's important, and by highlighting our achievements we can also see how far we have come."