The right products
We understand our customers and their needs-this helps us provide them with the right products for them.
Providing the right product to the right customer is a key element of our Customer Principles. To do this, we need good, accurate customer insight. Understanding our customers' needs and knowing what motivates them is essential if we are to treat people fairly. This knowledge also helps us to improve customer retention.
The nature of our home credit business means that we have close contact with our customers. For example we will have carried out over 100 million customer visits in 2009. Agents obtain customer information not just for each new customer but for each new loan issue. Visiting customers in their homes every week means we are aware of individual needs and circumstances.
Product development
Our customer insight work helps us identify customer needs and requirements. This information is used to refine and develop new products in line with what our customers want.
The product development process goes through three main phases:
- Idea generation: gathering information from customers across the business to identify possible new products and services
- Concept testing and refinement: reducing the ideas to those that meet customer and business needs; identifying the target market for the product; identifying and analysing customer risk
- Development: developing the ideas into a state that we can then pilot in a controlled environment. The pilot involves monitoring customer feedback; stress-testing the product in different conditions; assessing its impact on customers; and assessing the quality of related customer information, including working with external organisations to ensure messages are clear and not misleading
Customer communication
We aim to provide clear and straightforward information about our products to help customers make informed decisions. We recognise the importance of providing clear, straightforward information about our products and offer.
We make every effort to keep our customer documentation clear and simple. Our customer information sheets and agreements set out the necessary information in plain, appropriate language. This will be supplemented through the introduction of standard credit information forms and increased 'cooling-off' periods in line with the new CCD. Welcome letters to customers clearly outline all responsibilities and, in some cases, we make a follow-up phone call.
Two-way communication is important and we provide customers with feedback channels such as the call centre, agents or branches.
Our commitment to providing clear, straightforward information is closely linked to our approach to financial literacy. Financial literacy is the main focus of our community investment work; all our businesses are now running financial literacy programmes.