How to build a future-proof sales organization in retail banking

The interest margin of Swiss retail banks has shrunk by over a third in the last ten years. This is eroding one of the most important sources of income in retail banking. In addition, new market players from the fintech sector are putting pressure on traditional banking with innovative business models.

Customer needs

The radical changes in the banking industry demand that retail banking, which is severely affected by the continuing low interest rate situation, be made more digital and efficient. The hpo client also recognised this and decided on corresponding strategic measures to increase efficiency. The core of the measures was to align the quality of advice and support on the basis of new factors. The available client data was to be used more intensively in order to support clients according to their potential. Further synergies were also to be realised through an organisational adjustment of the sales structures. To ensure that the implementation of the defined individual measures results in a coherent overall picture, hpo was commissioned to design and accompany the comprehensive realignment of the entire sales organisation.

Project target

The strategic goal was to make physical sales fit for the future, taking into account the efficiency measures that had been decided upon. The focus of the realignment was on the redesign of the customer care model on the basis of customer potential, the introduction of a new lead-based approach and the realisation of organisational synergies between the private and business customer areas. The determination of customer potentials was to be based primarily on corresponding customer intelligence. The primary challenge was to design the support model, the working method and the organisation in a coordinated manner. hpo was commissioned with the development and implementation of a consistent business process model and the matching organisational structure for sales due to its methodological expertise.

Approach

After an initial context analysis, the decided efficiency improvement measures were concretised and coordinated in such a way that a uniform overall picture could be formed. In a next step, a target business process model was developed - together with the internal project team - as an overarching goal. Based on the designed support and business process model, the requirement profiles and roles of the different sales units within the organisation could be derived and the new, more efficient way of working could be defined. Thematic work packages were derived from the target picture and transferred into an implementation roadmap, which ensured the timely realisation of the cost-saving goals. Following the design of the target picture and the rough implementation planning, the implementation project was set up and carried out - also accompanied by hpo. The core components of the implementation were on the one hand the organisational adjustments, which had a strong impact on the staff level, and on the other hand the adjustment of the IT tools, which had to be adapted to the new support model and the new way of working.

Results

The changeover to the new support model was successfully completed, the software adjustments were rolled out, the employees were prepared for the new way of working and the new organisation was introduced by the agreed deadline. An essential success factor for this was that thanks to the initial classification of the efficiency improvement measures in a coherent overall picture for sales, the numerous topics to be addressed were coordinated from the beginning. This made it possible to identify inconsistencies and coordination needs at an early stage and to ensure a successful and timely implementation of the measures. With the help of hpo, the retail sales department was thus aligned with the changed market conditions and the basis for further digitalisation was created.