- Barclays: Convincing Their Customers to Chat
THE CHALLENGE:
Barclays Bank was listening, but their customers weren’t talking, a challenge that resulted in Barclays turning to Synecticsworld for help.
A major global financial services provider with over 300 years of experience, Barclays is engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services that have a vibrant international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia.
THE PROCESS:
What it didn’t have, but desperately needed, were customers who spoke to Barclays about their specific banking needs. Synecticsworld ended that silence by using our consumer insight techniques to design a series of meetings. But we didn’t just put people in a room; we created a dynamic workshop environment that allowed the bank’s customers to vocalize their thoughts, their concerns and their needs.
“During the workshop we placed a lot of faith in the Synecticsworld facilitators. At points during the process it was not clear where the discussions and exercises were taking us – this was difficult for both executives and the customers – but we got there in the end!”
says Chris Lukehurst, then head of Consumer Insights at Barclays and the person who initiated the bold move to go beyond traditional research techniques.
The workshops took the form of three-day sessions, which Synecticsworld facilitated while senior product development executives from Barclays’ various business units and Barclays’ customers talked. The sessions were highly interactive and led to the executives coming away with a wealth of information. Information that gave them greater insight into their customers’ widely disparate needs.
THE RESULTS:
A new wave of products and services naturally flowed from that insight.
“Synecticsworld helped us understand that periods of uncertainty and confusion are part of the innovation process,” says Mr. Lukehurst.
That Synecticsworld-led innovation played no small part in Barclays Bank’s net income growth of 67.7% in 2006 and reported sales of $62,893 million.
