For banks, preparing for recovery requires reconciling three fundamental requirements: supporting customers and responding to specific needs related to the crisis; strengthening their image as a mission-driven company and trusted third party with public authorities, customers, and their employees; and securing business on the fundamentals of retail banking to preserve NBI.
These three requirements are at the heart of the action plans to be built to prepare for the recovery.
Since the start of the lockdown, banks have mobilized to ensure the opening of branches (BPCE: 90% of branches open, LBP 1,000 bank points, etc.) and respond to customer requests, particularly from professionals and businesses with the launch of State-Guaranteed Loans (50,000 applications processed in 10 days, as specified by Crédit Agricole).To calmly prepare for the end of the crisis, 4 key themes seem essential to us, presented here in the form of an “operational checklist”:
1 – “Customer” checklists
This health crisis is a unique moment of truth for customer relations and constitutes an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate listening and support. Whereas before the crisis, retail banking was facing an increasing commoditization of its services, an erosion of its business (particularly towards new players who have gained nearly 5 million customers to date), and declining customer satisfaction (neutral or negative NPS for most players), crisis management can prove to be an opportunity to stand out in the management of key post-lockdown moments and to strengthen its trust capital.
2 – “Collaborators” Checklist
This crisis has already demonstrated an unprecedented mobilization of employees and has changed work rhythms and management methods. The post-crisis period is likely to be long-term and requires anticipating levers of support and assistance for employees, protective measures, but also recognition of the efforts made. It is also a unique opportunity to unite all employees around a common mission (and avoid the split between those exposed to the public and the others) and to strengthen the pride of belonging to a socially useful company.
3 – “Effectiveness of means” checklist
To enable recovery, we must rethink tomorrow’s operational model “with the virus” both in the allocation of resources (front, middle, back), the processing of request,s and the management of flows (agency, CRC, middle) but also in terms of working methods (remotely, etc.).
4 – “Management” checklist
To enable the gradual exit from the crisis to be managed by focusing on a few key indicators of pre- and post-crisis flow development (% flow by activity overall and by sector of activity – amounts of transactions in deferred, default rate, etc.), detailed monitoring of customer satisfaction (NPS, complaints, etc.), image and reputation risk, particularly following financing refusals (trust rate, number of negative messages, social media monitoring), not forgetting key HR indicators (employee NPS, QVT [Quality of Life at Work] indicators and changes in working hours). This is with the aim of better understanding the post-crisis world, anticipating and continuously adapting resources (learning model), and, above all, gradually building new benchmarks (risk, operations, etc.) to prepare for 2021.
1. “Customer” Checklists
1: The first action, already underway in certain markets, consists of building customer support plans (Part, Private Management, Pros, Companies) by focusing on credit (CT and MLT) with graduated measures depending on the level of impact of the crisis for the customer/sector.
Several types of measures are to be considered: measures to manage hardships and the temporary drop in income (deferral of deadlines, overdraft ceiling, PGE, factoring, etc.), to relaunch activity (short-term financing, equipment credit, lease, etc.) and to prevent and manage sensitive cases of cessation or over-indebtedness (credit reorganization/restructuring, search for guarantees [solidarity guarantee funds, etc.], activation of insurance clauses, etc.).
These action plans must be precise and equipped with their content (exemption rules, delegation, arguments, sector notes, etc.) to guarantee a consistent response at all levels while allowing the advisor to play the role of listening and assessing the client’s situation.
2: The second action consists of identifying a common base of measures that will define the post-crisis brand promise:
• Adaptation of commission pricing (review of penalty pricing on incidents and file fees)
• Promotion of digital services and acceleration of developments (electronic signature, dematerialization, video appointments, etc.)
• Information services, coaching and financial education on banking products, tax, and social measures, etc.: budget coaching in response to the “frugal” behavior that will develop post-crisis, management of hard knocks, savings coaching (investing and allocating savings post-Covid), coaching and tools to restart your professional activity (reminder of aid, sectoral approaches, cash management and sharing of good solidarity practices between customers)
• Customer support measures to manage successions (administrative assistance, dedicated number, digital platform for exchanging documents and monitoring files)
3: The third action consists of adapting the key moments initially planned for 2020 and simplifying contact and marketing action plans.
The key moments need to be reviewed in terms of targeting, key moments, and channel mix.
In agencies, advisors’ actions will focus on supporting the most struggling customers (EI, liberal professions, artisans/traders, etc.) and carrying out key commercial actions to preserve NBI (insurance, etc.).
The challenge is then to identify:
• Actions to be proactively offered to certain customers to reduce the flow (and to automate/digitize) and free up sales time (e.g., activation of contactless, automated postponement of deadlines, etc.)
• Actions to be entrusted to customer relations centers (both reactive and proactive) in relay to agencies
4: The fourth action consists of imagining new solidarity banking services (e.g. solidarity rounding up, solidarity savings/SRI, intergenerational offer and approach, or even extra-banking (mobility support, home service, school assistance) – provided, however, that the fundamentals of customer relations are ensured in terms of support and pricing so as not to be accused of opportunism.
2. “Collaborators” Checklist
1: Prepare the training and animation of employees to take ownership of the measures defined by the bank and the government to play a global advisory role, while ensuring the versatility of skills on critical activities (e., GE files, processing of claims, etc.) to meet local staffing needs.
To this end, several actions can be undertaken immediately:
• Distance training plan (including during confinement) using collaborative tools to prepare for the recovery
• Sales animation systems in support of the network and CRC (organization of support actions in person or remotely, collective actions by groups of employees, etc.)
• Adaptation of sales support and assistance tools (chatbot, FAQ, etc.) to answer first-level questions from employee support units
2: Organize the long-term protection of employees post-confinement :
• Uniform deployment of protection measures for employees exposed to the public (filtering measures, opening hours, provision of protective equipment, security guards for incivility management at certain points of sale)
• Adaptation of post-confinement working rules both on-site (distancing measures, team rotation, etc.) and remotely (definition of a global remote working organization plan with a review of service needs, including certain headquarters/BOs that can operate remotely, implementation of remote managerial rituals, etc.)
• Establishment of a dedicated HR/QVT employee listening unit (in relay to managers) to monitor working conditions (work environment, personal situations and difficulties encountered, etc.) which will contribute to the sustainable performance of the post-crisis system
• Creation of a “Living Together” company collective: the idea is to unite the different employees, strengthen pride of belonging, and prevent the risk of social fractures within the company itself. Several initiatives are possible: regular communication on results, testimonials, “live my life” schemes (remotely) between departments, etc.
3: Recognize the efforts made and adapt the variable part systems by ensuring:
• Develop collective approaches (agency level, agency group, or even MO/BO)
• Promote the processing of customer requests on time and to satisfaction
• Simplify commercial objectives on strategic issues (e.g.: recycling following succession, anti-attrition, P&C/providence, financing, etc.)
• Encourage the diversification of skills by taking into account in the variable part the completion of training and acquisition of new skills
3. “Effectiveness of means” checklist
1: Simplify and automate processes and operating methods for critical activities:
• Adapt delegations (rates, amounts, exemptions) and their conditions of use during the transitional period
• Automate alerts (amounts, customer reminders, etc.) to focus on priority risks and actions
• Define with commitments and the BO the supporting documents essential for studying files by limiting their number and favoring digital format (email, web form)
• Adapt or automate compliance processes by focusing on the essentials
• Identify support (task forces, middle, etc.) in relays from agencies and business centers (setup, customer follow-up, etc.)
• Streamline links with stakeholders who can slow down the credit process (e.g., insurance, guarantee funds, external partners/subsidiaries, etc.)
• Set up file monitoring workflows allowing direct and comprehensive knowledge of the file by the bank’s stakeholders (advisor, commitment, BO).
2: Organize and manage the processing of customer requests to ensure rapid response:
• Anticipate and reduce flows: implementation of a digital customer FAQ, file tracking notifications (credit, claim, inheritance)
• Adapt the routing of flows according to the organization (to the Middle, CRC, etc.)
• Define organizational principles in agencies and business centers from the takeover and review them regularly: customer appointment time slots, time slots for file analysis, training/facilitation on key topics, etc.
• Set up a system for fine-tuning requests by reason (PGE, complaint, etc.)
3: Size and allocate resources to organize the resumption of activity
• Project the activity load on priority subjects to cover customer needs upon resumption: Agency/Business Center level (depending on the business and network); CRC level (depending on the missions entrusted and transfer of activities); MO/BO level (depending on peak flows on critical activities – credits, recovery, risk/compliance, litigation, etc.)
• Identify the staff available for resumption based on 3 criteria: 1) leave, absence/illness – 2) priority skills – 3) geographical location/ability to telework
• Prepare for subsidiarity: train employees (now) on critical activities
• Adjust the social framework exceptionally if necessary: working hours, agency opening hours, overtime, leave rules, etc.
• Anticipate and manage needs (reinforcement, reallocation, etc.) by building a real-time “resources/loads” vision
• Request external service providers (e.g., Webhelp, Téléperformance, etc.) now to manage potential peak loads
4. “Steering” Checklist
1: Build a “crisis exit” dashboard by integrating 3 strategic dimensions:
• Key indicators of flow evolution before and after the crisis (% flow by activity – overall and by sector, amounts of transactions discarded, failure rate, etc.) to measure the resilience of certain sectors and the level of business recovery
• Satisfaction and reputation indicators: monitoring of satisfaction (NPS, complaints, etc.), and especially of the risk to image and reputation, particularly following the refusal of financing. The adaptation of hot and cold satisfaction measures (surveys for Q3/Q4 for example) should be anticipated in this sense
• HR and QVT indicators (for example employee NPS and qualitative feedback from a dedicated listening unit). This strategic dashboard complements the operational management that is already being organized (monitoring of requests and processing of files, etc.) and will allow managers to adapt action plans and constitute a key vector for transparent communication with employees (dissemination of evidence and achievement of objectives)
2: Adapt the benchmarks: the crisis is changing the risk benchmarks and requires the gradual creation of new benchmarks to assess customer value: new data and learning models need to be put in place, drawing as much as possible on the knowledge of the advisor or account manager.
3: Redesign the Strategic Plans being prepared by most banks:
• Prepare for the 2020 landing and focus on the 2021 recovery plan with a risk of a 2nd wave of failures and an increase in the cost of risk
• Identify the major strategic trade-offs and priorities to be launched: efficiency plan, digital investments, the opportunity for consolidation/grouping of activities, etc.
• Take the time to prepare for the world of tomorrow (horizon 2023/2024) by reaffirming its purpose and its positioning in society.