“For nearly 191 years, our customers have been telling us, one way or another, they expect us to be in tune with what’s happening in their locality.”
They want the comfort and benefits of dealing with a big, sound bank with national coverage, but they also want the touch and feel of local presence and understanding.
Just tweaking our often overly centralised approach wasn’t going to get us there in today’s world. So we are turning the so called modern and efficient way on its head – starting with the high growth Brisbane South Region.
We’re calling it Westpac Local. We’re giving our local branch managers greater autonomy and accountability, and bringing all the local Westpac team (branches, business bankers, wealth advisors) together under one roof. No longer are their local marketing plans dictated by the head office. They’ll now be developed by the local team against the backdrop of our broader national plans.
This means changing some substantial facets of our retail business, including where we have branches, better technology and processes to support local touch, and upgrading local management skills.
Going local includes expanding our front-line footprint. In the last year, we added 325 customer serving employees. We opened 13 new branches, relocated another 3 to better locations and significantly upgraded 16. We want our retail network to set the standard for 21st century retail financial services.
And it’s working. We’re making real progress on customer satisfaction – showing the biggest improvement of the major banks in the last year. But we know there’s still a lot more to do to give our customers all the benefits of national strength and reach, but with the local touch.
Wherever and whenever our personal customers touch us, we want them to feel special.