RBS 2010 Annual Report Download - page 25

23RBS Group 2010
Divisional review
UK Retail
Listening is what a helpful bank does and we now have a programme in
place to ensure our staff, including our Executives, hear first hand about
the needs and frustrations of our customers. Through our Customer
Charter we will show clearly what we’re doing as a result of what our
customers tell us. In 2010, we opened early morning and late evening
in our 200 busiest branches. In addition, we open 846 branches on a
Saturday because customers told us that would make life easier. They
also told us to keep things simple so this year we have rewritten all our
banking hall literature and improved our customer review process,
making it easier for customers to choose the right product for them. We
have also simplified our overdraft charging structure for customers who
go overdrawn without agreement and introduced ‘Act Now' pre-emptive
text and e-mail alerts.
While these are early days for the Charter, initial progress has been
encouraging. We asked Deloitte LLP to track our progress in the first six
months. They told us that we achieved 80% of the goals during that time.
Highlights of their findings include:
•answering 91.4% of calls in under 60 seconds in our UK telephone
banking call centres against a target of 90%;
•meeting a commitment to maintain local banking services where we
are ‘last bank in town’, keeping 146 ‘last bank’ branches open across
the country, against a target of 100; and
•sending replacement cards within 24 hours to 97% of customers
whose debit cards were lost or stolen, against a target of next
working day delivery.
Our goals are stretching and we still have work to do as we missed five
of our 20 goals, including:
•against a goal of nine out of 10 customers being very satisfied with
service, eight out of 10 were very satisfied; and
•against a target of simplifying and rewriting all our branch literature
in line with customer feedback, we managed to make available the
new literature from end of February 2011.
We will strive to do better, but these first results are a good start and
demonstrate our commitment to be a better bank for our customers.
Resolving customer complaints fairly, consistently and promptly
The treatment of complaints was a big focus for the industry in 2010.
We worked hard to get better at this. We have trained over 10,000
designated complaint handlers so that we can resolve customer
complaints more fairly and consistently and address the root causes of
complaints. Through our Customer Charter we are also going one step
further by committing to be completely transparent about the top five
customer complaints.
Playing an active role in the communities we serve
We know that playing an active role in supporting the communities where
we live and work is an important part of rebuilding our reputation. We
launched our Community Fund, providing £1.8 million worth of financial
support to local charities and community projects nominated by our
customers. In addition, all of our employees now have the option of a
day’s leave to get involved in local volunteering. Our commitment to
financial education remains as important as ever. We delivered 30,653
lessons in schools right across the country through our independently
accredited MoneySense programme.
Committing to maintaining local banking services
Many of our customers, particularly in Scotland, live in rural areas.
Through our Customer Charter, we have made a firm commitment to
maintain local banking services in the communities we serve, pledging
to stay open if we are the last bank in town and continuing to run our
mobile bank service. We have also extended access to our accounts
through Post Office counters.
Addressing the legacy of the past
In August 2010, we reached an early agreement on the sale of 318
branches to Santander UK Plc. The sale was required as part of the
State Aid agreement reached with the European Commission. It provides
greater clarity for our staff and customers and represents another
significant step forward in our restructuring for the future. We expect the
process to be completed by the end of March 2012. RBS Group remains
committed to the UK retail banking market and, even after the sale we
will continue to operate the second largest retail branch network in the UK.
Striving to become Britain’s Most Helpful and Sustainable Bank
We expect 2011 to be another challenging year but we know that we will
succeed as a business by helping our customers through good times
and bad. Our commitment to becoming Britain’s most Helpful and
Sustainable Bank is a long-term one and we are confident we are
creating a new kind of retail bank.
We have trained over 10,000 designated
complaints handlers to ensure we are
resolving customer complaints fairly,
consistently and promptly.
We launched our Community Fund,
providing £1.6 million of financial
support to local charities and
community projects nominated by our
customers.