How does First Direct manage to consistently excel on customer service? Does it offer different levels of service depending on customer value? Does it hold aspirations to extend it’s brand beyond finance? What prospects lie ahead?

 STARRING 

• Matthew Higgins, Head of Brand Communications, First Direct
• Andrew Smith, founder, Andrew Smith Research and ICG member (Host)

PODCAST
Service companies are there to provide a service. But do they generally provide good service? Not according to a report from Andrew Smith Research and ResearchNow which shows just how poorly some sectors are treating their customers.

So what does it take to deliver really good service? We speak to Matthew Higgins, the Head of Brand Communications for bank First Direct, and Andrew Smith, co-author of the report.

Matthew talks about the lengths to which First Direct goes to provide the level of customer service it has become renowned for. But is the increase in internet banking diluting the impact of its customer service? Should all customers, irrespective of the value they generate, receive the same level of customer service? And given its brand strength, does First Direct have any aspirations in the area of brand stretching? These are some of the areas covered in this interesting exploration of a truly customer-centric organisation.

Please let us know what you think of this podcast.

TIMELINE [25m47s]
00m00s Introduction to Matthew Higgins.
01m23s How First Direct manages to excel on customer service.
03m34s The cost of providing good service.
04m36s It’s more than just people.
06m58s Maintaining differentiation.
08m54s Proposition.
13m29s Key performance measures.
15m07s Segmentation.
19m40s Relationship with HSBC.
22m00s Prospects for brand stretching.
24m26s Thoughts on research.

QUOTES
On staff: “…our people talk to customers as equals on an adult-to-adult basis…its isn’t one of those things where you feel like you are talking to a bank…”

On the cost of providing good customer service: “…this thing about service and profitability, it’s not mutually exclusive.”

On recommendation: “…people like to recommend things that they really trust…and recommendation is extremely important to us…a third of our customers have joined us through recommendation.”

On positioning: “We are first and foremost a service-based organisation, we are not a channel-based organisation.”

On new media: “On the web, through chat rooms, blogging etc.…there is a still a tone of voice, a style of the brand to maintain…”

On the proposition: “Our customers are well aware that we are not number one for price…they are prepared to make a trade-off [between price and customer service].”

On RoI: “First Direct took five years to break into profit…now we are making significant profits.”

On segmentation: “…you have to be very careful in terms of the way you may treat different segments of customers based on the relationship you have built up…”

On segmentation: “It may be that you are very open with your customers and you actually talk to them about the value that they give to you, which would be a very un-bank thing to do…”

On parent HSBC: “…the relation between us is very good…First Direct is seen as the testbed.”

Music Brother Love from the PMN

Series:MarketingTalk