HOW WE ARE INNOVATING FOR OUR CUSTOMERS
2023-04-18 15:50:12.0
It’s the second day of ‘Our Innovation’ Week — a week dedicated to showcasing the many innovations happening across BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK — and today’s theme is how we are innovating for our customers.
We sat down with Chief Customer Officer, Richard Newland, to find out more about how BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK is transforming the customer experience and why a theme on innovation for customers is important.
What does innovation mean at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK?
Richard explained: “Innovation is often associated with AI, robotics, machine learning or IT, but at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, we believe that everybody can innovate — it’s just being able to solve an existing problem in a different way.
“Innovation informs every area of the business. From marketing and human resources to customer service and change management, we make sure that innovation is cemented at every level as everybody has great ideas. This way, we can continue our journey of innovating at pace, in a way that matters.”
Creating a seamless customer experience is at the heart of BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK and a key focus for Richard as Chief Customer Officer. Using his experience working with some of the world’s best brands including HSBC, Currys and BT, Richard discussed why transforming the customer experience is a big ambition of his.
Transforming customer experience
“We want BNP Paribas Personal Finance to be the number one partner for retail finance in the UK. To do this, we need to be continuously innovating to ensure that we are offering a service that is delighting customers and exceeding their expectations.
“By listening to our customers, identifying trends in their behaviour and reacting to change in the wider market, we can provide a frictionless, personalised experience for our customers. This focus on creating an experience which is led by customer needs is vital to staying ahead of the services provided by our competitors and a big factor in why we’ve dedicated a whole day towards it during ‘Our Innovation Week’.”
Innovation in practice: The Creation Hub
One way BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK is innovating for its customers is through the launch of its Creation Hub at its Solihull offices.
Creation is the consumer brand of BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK and the Creation Hub is a collaborative space displaying communications, customer feedback and success stories and the aim is to not only highlight the innovation happening across the company but to inspire and accelerate innovative thinking.
Richard said: “To help our colleagues better connect with our customers, we have launched a hub so they can immerse themselves in the customer experience.
“In the hub, colleagues can discuss and brainstorm what is going well and what can be changed or introduced to better improve the customer experience at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, making the space a conversation starter. Plus, with the Creation Hub having input from all areas of the business, this means we can better inform our innovative practices moving forward.”
Innovation in practice: The Creation App
As part of our efforts to improve our customer journey, this year we launched the Creation App — allowing customers to manage their finances on the move anytime, anywhere. To date, more than 36,000 users have downloaded the app and the response has been overwhelmingly positive with customer reviews highlighting the level of control and ease of use as major perks.
Richard stated: “The app is essential to our organisation as it gives customers better control over their finances as it makes it easier to access our services. What’s more, through the app, customers can easily track how much they have available to spend, what they have yet to repay, and how they can do that.
“We are at the beginning of our journey with the Creation App and have big plans for improving its functionality and the offers available on the platform as we’d like to have this app in the pocket of every customer.”
Throughout the week-long ‘Our Innovation’ event, colleagues and students from Digital Innovators (a local training provider giving young people access to fulfilling career opportunities), will have the opportunity to discuss ways to innovate the Creation App and improve the customer experience.
Looking ahead
As this year marks our 50th year, BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK has big plans to boost innovation across the business including transformations in our digital, data and decisioning capabilities. But to continue our path of pioneering, anticipating change and adapting to meet evolving customer needs, Richard said: “It’s vital we continue listening to our customers and adapting to what the market needs. This way, we can execute innovation effectively and at pace.”
Stay tuned on our Twitter and LinkedIn channels for highlights and updates on ’Our Innovation Week’.