Postbanken - Self-service gives loyalty

Automating individualized communication

The strategic cornerstone in Postbanken’s concept was using the post office’s daily contact with 450,000 potential customers. The only disadvantage from this was the post office’s lack of ability to give counsel on financial products. Therefore, a program was developed that would, whenever possible, give customers a self-service option – either via email or back office.

The program consisted of:

A welcome package
All information was gathered into a single welcome package and sent to the customer. Only the pin code to the card was sent separately. Compare this to competitor Nordbanken, whose customers could, for example, receive up to 13 letters with 5-6 different welcome greetings. The welcome package contained a survey to follow up on the customer’s satisfaction level. This gave Postbanken a strong tool for use at the post office and to monitor the welcome package’s delivery process.

Call after 3 months
All customers were called after 3 months to ensure satisfaction. Many customers responded positively to the fact that it wasn’t a sales call.

Annual check-up
After 12 months the customer received an overview of his/her economy in Postbanken. The customer received a graphic presentation of his/her liquidity’s development in the account, profile of loan payment and overview of savings development.

The activity was used to give suggestions of helpful changes based on the customer’s economy. For example, suggestions and offers could be:

• A VISA card if he or she had a lot of ATM withdrawals
• Offer of 10,000 in credit into the checking account if the customer’s economy is good
• Offer to either save up or loan an amount equivalent to the positive liquidity in the checking account – in the event the customer had positive liquidity
• Changes in monthly savings or payments, establishment of loan or savings account. The customer could do this simply by signing the reply card, in which the relevant information was already filled out

Result
4% of customers took action via the reply card.

ECHO USA, 1999, Leader Award