We're embedding our commitment to customers into our strategy and the way we do business.
Customers
Our business depends on winning and retaining the trust and custom of our customers. We are committed to creating products that meet their needs, communicating transparently and clearly and listening to our customers to improve the customer experience. We seek feedback into customer experiences to help us understand their needs, develop better products and tailor our service.
Financial inclusion
“Home credit provides a convenient way for people to borrow money quickly and in a manageable and transparent way. Our customers want smaller loans and manageable repayments, like the personal service, convenience and flexibility of home credit, and they come back to us time and again.
"Our business model allows us to be financially inclusive. A common feature of emerging markets is that many consumers do not have access to financial services because they have no credit history. They may be taking a loan from a financial organisation for the first time. We are able to provide access to credit to many customers who have limited access to other forms of credit. We believe people should not be excluded from credit and with our model we are able to serve customers of modest means in a way that provides them with access to credit in a responsible and profitable way.
"Our business model is also inclusive in that we serve customers in rural and sparsely populated areas where transport to banks is poor and expensive.”
Renata Salata, Marketing Director, Provident Financial, Czech Republic
A customer-centric business
We understand our responsibilities towards our customer group and one example of this is the work initiated in 2007 to align the business voluntarily to the principles of Treating Customers Fairly. This led to many improvements within product development, customer communication, complaints management, lending and collections.
We have distributed over 2 million customer charters and over 35,000 agent charters which clearly communicate to customers and agents the high standards they can expect from us. We continue to investigate ways in which we can improve engagement with customers even further.
A core pillar of our recently implemented Global Change Programme is Customer Service. The work has initially focussed on defining the service experience and behaviours required to support it. Key achievements to date have been the development of ten key customer service behaviours which build on the progress made within our Customer Principles and Charters. To support this we have developed customer service training and reference material for managers and agents which will be launched across the business in 2012.
An important development to encourage a culture of customer centricity has been the creation of a customer-service metric and underpinning indicators. We have introduced a customer survey which covers 200 customers in every branch every month to gain feedback on our service and behaviour. This includes whether customers believe we live to the commitments made within the Customer Charter.
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