From rethinking onboarding to unifying global customer voice, HSBC’s CX strategy shows how empathy, data and design can work together to build loyalty.
In banking, trust and efficiency define loyalty, but for Gail Russell, Global Head of Customer Channels & Commercialisation at HSBC International Wealth & Premier Banking, customer experience is about much more than transactions.
And In customer experience, measurement frameworks can make or break transformation. “Our single biggest ROI inflection came when we moved from a patchwork of different customer surveys and moved our markets onto one global platform. This has enabled us to truly create a voice of customer platform, to look for consistent customer insights across multiple markets and manage feedback in close to real time, to fix issues for example,” she adds.
Gail Russell emphasises that customer experience in banking is most vulnerable at the start of the relationship—the first 48 hours of onboarding. HSBC is futureproofing this moment by combining trusted brand equity with seamless digital journeys. She also reveals how embedding empathy into HSBC’s global CARE behaviours has scaled CX transformation across 36,000 employees.
Excerpts from the interview:
Which part of the customer journey do you see as most vulnerable to disruption right now and how are you futureproofing it?
One of the most fragile links is the first 48 hours when a customer opens and funds an account and decides whether the bank will be their primary provider. We always need to couple our trusted brand with world-class onboarding, ensuring ease of first deposit and customer engagement at this critical point.
How do you get frontline teams to act on customer insights not just collect them?
Across some locations, HSBC has introduced an improved closed loop feedback system with deeper feedback, and enhanced process to improve the time between hearing it and acting on it. The result is that we can track improvements in a timely manner, which means teams can truly see the impact of their actions.
What’s a mistake banks often make when trying to personalise experiences at scale?
Some programmes still rely on static demographic data. This can lead to irrelevant nudges and lack of engagement or conversion. For example, a 35-year-old first time saver and 35-year-old business founder may get the same nudge about an investment product. Personalising a customer’s engagement using the relevant data and insight is vital. We recognise they have very different needs and require distinct messages. Part of the solution, to avoid a fractured customer experience, is also to consider communications across the different channels, ensuring we are consistent, and customers get the same experience whatever way they’re choosing to engage with us.
How do you ensure that local teams truly internalise empathy in product design and service execution, while still aligning with the bank’s global CX strategy?
We hard-wired empathy into our CX model by embedding our CARE behaviours (Connected, Accountable, Responsive, Empathetic) into every service moment and journey. Co-creating and learning from pilot programmes in local market, we built a bespoke curriculum and scalable training program for contact centre and branch colleagues globally. It now covers more than 36,000 individuals from Mexico to Hong Kong.
What’s one decision you made that clearly shifted the ROI of HSBC’s CX program?
Our single biggest ROI inflection came when we moved from a patchwork of different customer surveys and moved our markets onto one global platform. This has enabled us to truly create a voice of customer platform, to look for consistent customer insights across multiple markets and manage feedback in close to real time, to fix issues for example.
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