Igniting sales and service

Based in the UK, Nationwide Building Society provides financial services through a network of 700 branches and their customer contact centres. Nationwide are now the UK’s third largest mortgage lender and second largest savings provider. More significantly, they are the largest building society in the world and committed to staying mutual. The society is keen to emphasise that it does not have shareholders; it has members.

Ignite meaningful conversations

TetraMap was introduced to Nationwide as an integral part of the 2-day Ignite Sales and Customer Service programme. Nationwide wanted to further deepen customer relationships by up-skilling the customer service team and maintain their position as number one financial organisation for customer service. The programme was designed to empower the Direct Sales and Service Consultants, provide them with skills to create meaningful conversations with customers, and generate natural sales opportunities—it swiftly became a great success.

Sustaining success “a simple and effective framework”

The Ignite programme was initially developed and delivered by an external consultancy, and Nationwide decided to take it in-house allowing them to reduce costs and continue sustaining its success through internal champions. As a part of this process, the training team became Certified TetraMap Facilitators, and the programme was been delivered to over 200 frontline staff and 150 managers.

No. 1 for customer satisfaction

Each month independent researchers GFK Financial Research contact 10,000 customers by telephone to ask them about the quality of service they receive. Customer satisfaction has increased month on month at Nationwide, and since September 2011 they have consistently maintained their status as No. 1 for Customer Service in the Putting Customers First challenge.

Gold award

In 2011 at the IT Training Awards, the Ignite programme claimed the Gold Award for Staff Development Programme of the Year. TetraMap featured in the presentation submission. Ignite was also shortlisted for the Best Customer Service Award at the Contact Centre Forum Awards, and reached the finals of the much coveted Training Journal Awards and the European Call Centre Awards.

Key factors in the awards success were:

• Representation and success stories from all levels (Manager, Project & Training Manager, Trainer, Consultant).
• How the frontline consultants adapted their communication styles to each individual customer (TetraMap).
• Follow-up and embedding plan to keep the training alive.

Results from sales and service consultants

• 97% know how to promote the right product to the customer in a memorable and informative way.
• 74% noticed an improvement in their manager’s coaching skills.
• 66% have seen an increase in their own sales performance.
• 81% have developed personally.
• 86% felt fully supported by their line manager and 70% felt this support had improved since Ignite.

Far reaching

The benefits of TetraMap to the organisation have been far-reaching beyond improving customer service and sales opportunities. Managers are now better equipped to deal with challenging situations and there is a greater understanding and tolerance within teams. Nationwide continues to use the Ignite programme which new Sales and Service Consultants enjoy as part of their induction into the business. They are also exploring potential opportunities where TetraMap can add further value as a tool for them.

Nationwide Case Study

Nationwide Case Study 454.25 KB 97 downloads