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How Nationwide Building Society pays attention to customer experience

For about 140 years now, Nationwide, the largest building society worldwide, has been evolving to ensure its customers find experiences that can keep them returning. In fact, according to Invoca, 74% of customers confirmed that they would transact with a business based on user experience alone.

As of 2022, Nationwide had total assets worth £272 billion and employed almost 19,000 workers. This society is known for innovation and flexibility in adopting new technologies to stay relevant. For instance, it became the first UK provider to offer online services in 1997 and has currently been utilising voice technology to enhance customer engagement. Reading on, you will discover more insights into how this company keeps customers hooked up.

Power of bonuses

Bonuses are not a thing of yesterday in the business world. And, it follows that their applications can vary from one industry to another. In online entertainment sectors such as casinos, game providers like BCasino often use them to attract new customers and retain existing ones. These could vary from free spins and welcome bonuses to no-deposit offers.

It hasn’t been any different with Nationwide. Just in May, it launched plans that would see about 3.85 million members receiving up to £100 even after profits slipped the previous year. Only members with current and savings accounts or current accounts and mortgages could receive this bonus.

For qualifying members who have joint accounts, the terms and conditions of the bonus apply to each of them individually. That means that if you jointly hold, say, a current account and mortgage, the payment will be made to you both. And, if you hold an account for someone else – whether under the power of attorney, court order or third-party mandate – your account won’t be considered for payment.

Prioritising customer service

As we have already highlighted, customer experience is the lifeline of any business. For instance, to ensure that you receive timely and effective assistance, organizations like Boo Casino have live support where you can get real-time assistance. Especially now that the modern-day consumer has become fast-paced, Nationwide has adapted different strategies to remain competitive.

On top of implementing measures like lowering mortgage rates, this British company has an Active Manager model that helps the company increase active listening and focus on building a robust culture. This model increases customer service by measuring how the company’s managers use their time and eliminates the barriers that prevent them from being effective. To further ensure that customers find better experiences, managers are trained to listen to customers actively, which reduces repeat calls.

According to a recent journal by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, timely and clear communications have become a regulatory requirement in the UK ecosystem. Previously, working with third-party providers to manage communications was quite an uphill task and proved insufficient for this society. Creating new communication templates, for instance, would take 12 weeks. Nationwide now uses OpenText Exstream, which reduces this duration to as short as two weeks and can also provide tailored print communications.

Enhancing customer satisfaction

It’s no surprise that customer satisfaction is a top priority for this world’s largest society. And if statistics mean anything, SurveySparrow suggested that 81% of customers were willing to spend more on brands that offered better services than the ones that didn’t. In response to the growing need for better services, Nationwide implemented predictive simulation in its retail branch operations in 2016 to help plan cash machine usage and deployment more effectively.

Fast forwarding to 2024, the company collaborated with Red Marker to improve user protection through clear communication. This partnership would see risks in marketing and promotional assets greatly reduced, which is part of the company’s goal of ensuring it strictly adheres to respective regulatory requirements.

With Red Maker’s marketing compliance solution, this British company will be able to prioritize easily comprehensible communication and allow you to achieve optimal outcomes. Susan Turvey, the company’s Senior Manager of Financial Promotions and Advertising Approvals, applauded the move, saying that they were happy to collaborate with Red Maker as that would make their teams more efficient and avoid giving misleading information.

On the other hand, Mark Wood, Red Maker’s Chief Operating Officer, expressed his joy for the partnership, affirming that offering customers accurate information was critical in providing outstanding experiences. This perfectly aligns with the company’s goals: to transform how institutions manage their legal and compliance risk detection in digital marketing.

As customers have become more discerning, offering top-notch customer experiences has become a lucrative way for businesses to stand out. Nationwide is just an example of how businesses are paying attention to this growing need. And as we look into the future, technology will play a critical role in ensuring that companies offer services that match their preferences.