Isabelle Conner, Global Head of Marketing at ING Group, showed us how ING place their clients at the heart of everything ING does. Isabelle presented at the London conference 2 years ago, so it was great to have this follow-up and understanding of how they have progressed their client focus over the last couple of years.
ING has over 85 million clients across more than 40 countries and these clients are serviced by more than 105,000 employees. Isabelle described the importance of leveraging the massive network of their global workforce to deliver experiences that create brand adocates.
When it comes to buying insurance or banking services, 60% of people base their decisions on the recommendations of friends, family and colleagues. This reliance on the knowledge of people that you know has increased since the recent financial crisis. Customers are skeptical about advertising messages, they trust the experience of people close to them.
Since Word of Mouth carries more weight than advertising, ING is harnessing the power of their promoters by delivering on their brand promise. Theirs is a straightforward mission:
- Be easy to contact
- Be fast and efficient
- Provide clarity and transparency in all dealings
- And give clear, professional advice to customers
Simplicity is often the best approach. Over complicating the offering can muddy the waters in terms of service delivery. ING keep it clean and crisp with a very clear view of what they need to achieve and why. And the Net Promoter discipline provides them with a framework for success.
The results so far are showing that ING are on the right track. Their NPS has shown improvement as they have taken the action required to make a difference to the customer experience. Isabelle described their six-step plan for rolling out NPS in each country:
- Secured commitment to the program from the top down
- Established an ING framework and language for NPS
- Added in customisation that allowed for local flavour in each country
- Trained all staff in true closed loop follow-up
- Analysed and understood the feedback on an ongoing basis
- Acted on the specific feedback to improve the experience
Isabelle concluded by sharing examples of employee activities that are driving change from the grass roots in different countries. There were several members of the ING team in attendance who joined Isabelle on stage and who answered questions about the programmes they had implemented in their area to support customer-focused innovations and improvements.
The ongoing challenge is now to maintain the momentum - especially when different countries and leadership teams are at different levels of engagement with the NPS rollout. However, with an ongoing focus on both operational and behavioural elements, ING are in good shape for future success.
