Network Updates

In a further step to align branches and agencies, we have recently written to your teams asking them to start using Head Office Functionality (HOF) when sending letters out to customers.

This is great progress as finally all letters should be consistent and written professionally. Teller word wizard will be active in agencies until September. After then, it will be turned off. Details can be found in the message sent to your team on the 25.07.2022. 

There are a number of Teller changes due including the following:

Notice Diary Printing The automatic printing of the notice diary is going to be switched off.

Moving forward it will need to become a BAU task to check the notice diary on teller, daily in all branches and agencies and act accordingly. As well as the paper saving aspect (around 60,000 sheets a year) it will ensure these notice diary items are closed down on the system as and when they are dealt with.

Welcome Letter Removal Face To Face The current welcome letter that generates through teller when an account is opened is outdated, has incorrect information on it and cannot be updated.

We will now have a new process. When an account is opened face to face, there is no longer a requirement to produce a welcome letter (which will save in the region of 260,000 pieces of paper annually).

If an account is opened via a postal request there will be a new process to follow where a welcome letter is issued through HOF, in the same way all other letters can be issued (as noted above).

In general, around 5% of new accounts opened in branch and agency will now get a  welcome letter, but the letter is actively managed by the marketing team, meaning the information is up to date and accurate, and crucially can be amended moving forward should there be a need to.

 Removal of Passbook Labels From the data we have, it’s clear that labels don’t actually get used as much as they should.

It’s impossible to give a 100% accurate figure as we can’t account for wastage when a product gets withdrawn, or the potential of some branches/agencies sitting on an unusually large stockpile – but, from what we can see, only around one in three customers have the correct (or any) label in their passbook.

Having an outdated sticker in a passbook is a risk and could cause problems and queries which accurate stickers were originally meant to prevent. Naturally, this creates an inconsistent experience across the network, but ultimately the label is just a duplication of the key information within the product fact sheet.

The product factsheet is a regulatory document that we have to provide, but the label isn’t. Removing labels will save in the region of 10,000 sheets a year, and as label sheets are more costly than standard paper there is a significant cost benefit. In addition, this move will also save the savings trading and document design teams some time every time there is a new product launch, and with rate changes to our limited issue products being as frequent as they are at the moment this is a considerable benefit.

Finally, a reminder for Social Media users. 

Whether you're using Social Media for business or personal use, in branches, agencies and head office locations, please continue to be mindful of protecting YBS information, data and people when you are posting to Social channels.

• Do not use or disclose information that is or may be confidential to or the intellectual property or personal information of YBS, a colleague, a customer, a client or any other party.
• Ensure images do not include sensitive business information (e.g on a visible document, poster or screen)
• Make sure that any people featured in the image have given written consent for the image to be used.

For more information, please refer to the YBS Social Media policy (Intranet - Social Media Policy) or contact Richard Bassinder (Social Media Manager)

Mortgages

I have regularly used this update to talk about our mortgage process,  and there was recently an intranet article to celebrate its one year anniversary. 

Our Mortgage Business Partnership… is a year old!

The Mortgage Business Partnership (which was set up to look at the best way to connect branch and agency customers to our colleagues in Direct Mortgages) recently celebrated its first birthday, so we caught up with Adeel Qureshi (Mortgage Team Manager) and Sarah Graham (Retail Area Manager), who lead the partnership, for an update.

DMT Mortgage Training Specialist Jim and Inclusion & Diversity Champion Katy Lennox (KL): The Mortgage Business Partnership is a year old – could you tell me about some of highlights of the past 12 months?

Adeel Qureshi (AQ): It’s been great to see colleagues in the Retail Network embrace this new way of working and upskill themselves to make the most of the partnership with Direct Mortgages (DMT). Over 2,000 customers have been introduced through the partnership, with over 150 going on to either find a place called home or secure a new mortgage for their existing home.

PICTURED: MORTGAGE TRAINING SPECIALIST JIM MILLARD AND INCLUSION & DIVERSITY CHAMPION AMY CHAPMAN READY TO TAKE CUSTOMER CALLS

KL: What has the impact been on customers and colleagues?

AQ: The feedback from both customers and colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive. The goal was to have a referral process which was Unbelievably Easy and Efficient for everyone involved, and we’ve definitely achieved that. Customers have the ability to speak with a mortgage specialist within minutes of walking into one of our branches or agencies. At a time when properties are being sold within a matter of days, being able to obtain an agreement in principle within 30-40 minutes can make a real difference for potential buyers.

For colleagues, it’s the ability to be able to introduce the customer to an appropriately trained colleague to answer any questions they have relating to mortgages. This allows our retail colleagues to deal with other customers in the branch knowing that their mortgage customer is in safe hands.

KL: What challenges have you faced and how did you tackle these?

Sarah Graham (SG): The biggest challenge was getting the message to all of our retail colleagues so they’re aware of how they can help themselves and make a difference to their customers. A big win has been the creation of a group of mortgage leads within each retail area who’ve owned the mortgage agenda for their group of branches. Through regular meetings and the sharing of good news stories, this has helped to spread the word and keep mortgage conversations alive.

AQ: We now have a group of leads within DMT who partner with the branch-based mortgage leads with the aim of further building on this unique partnership.

Pictured: DMT Branch Partner Rebecca Conway speaking to a branch colleague

KL: What’s next for the Mortgage Business Partnership?

AQ: Along with further collaboration between colleagues from both business areas, we’ve worked with colleagues in the Insights team to use Purposeful Analytics and create a pilot group of branches where we believe there is a higher propensity for customers with a mortgage need. This is based on those customers who actively visit our branches and the general population who live within the vicinity. With the support of colleagues within the Learning team, we’ve just delivered five bespoke training sessions with colleagues based in these branches to support with knowledge and confidence levels with having mortgage conversations.

SG: We’ve also worked with colleagues in Marketing to create new posters for the digital screens in branches to support with customer awareness. So, lots of collaboration between colleagues throughout the business to maximise opportunities and deliver Real Help with Real Life. Once we understand the effectiveness of each initiative, we’ll look to roll these out to other colleagues throughout the branch and agency network.

Brian Reynolds, Regional Manager, said:

“We can see all our behaviours play out here – particularly ‘we care about people’ and ‘we make it happen’. Our retail and mortgage teams have shown how a focused effort and collaborative working have produced such great outcomes for our members.

“The sheer amount of people we’ve helped and supported in securing their home – or indeed maintaining their home - through better value mortgage products, is testament to how we do things round here. Well done all!”

Savings

Savings performance continues to be strong

• Overall net flows for the agency network are approaching £300m for the year
• The back book and ‘on-sale’ product range continues to perform well

Here is a round up of our latest product updates and pipeline activity to ensure that this continues: 

Family Saver – Launched 12/07

This project spans our Financial Resilience and Smarter Tiering workstreams. It’s primary purpose is as an insight-led, intergenerational product supporting customers to save for their family.

The insight is built around saving for higher education but the product isn’t limited to this specific purpose in order to support as many important savings goals as possible. The product also serves a secondary purpose as a 'test and learn' for our smarter tiering functionality prior to any wider use of the new interest structure.

Loyalty Regular Saver

As part of our Loyalty programme, we successfully launched our third loyalty product of 2022 on Tuesday (19th July) into both the branch and digital channels.

If you haven’t seen already, the product has a very exciting, market leading rate of 5% for up to £500 per month and is available for all members with at least 12 months tenure.  It’s really exciting that we’ve been able to take such a great offering to market,  which truly showcases both our mutual model and our purpose of rewarding our members.

What’s next?

A further member loyalty non ISA product is due to be launched sometime in September further rewarding our existing customers.

Away from loyalty, it’s all systems go as we prepare for the first ever UKSW (UK Savings Week) between the 19-25^th September with a wide range of activities taking place across the week; with the overall aim of more people developing savings habits and more importantly greater financial resilience.

We’re also re-visiting the learnings from Christmas Regular Saver and looking to integrate this into Issue 2. In addition to this there’s early discovery work going on around a Premium Bonds style account, green savings propositions and interest bonuses, watch this space for further details…

Colleague Development 

I am pleased to announce a new, virtual learning programme for new Customer Consultants who conduct savings meetings.

Using Teams and facilitated sessions to bring people together and interact with their peers, plus providing opportunities to network with other new Customer Consultants, the ‘Smart Savings Conversation’ programme focuses on building confidence together around the ‘Your Savings Meeting’ framework.

Participants will have the opportunity to: 

• Collaborate to explore best practices in different customer situations
• Gain top tips to enhance their Savings conversation skills
• Understand how to be compliant whilst fully focusing on the customer experience
• Learn how to avoid common mistakes.  

The learning journey comprises of pre course work, 2 separate facilitation sessions (approx. 3 hours each), then embedding activities in the agency. We would require your commitment to enable this, but your colleagues and your business will undoubtedly reap the benefits.

Dates of sessions will shortly be sent with full details of how to book people on.  I suggest you discuss this event with your newer Customer Consultants, to determine if they would like to attend this programme so if they do attend, they are fully aware of what it entails and how they will benefit.

For more on your colleague development, please see this month’s blog on Getting Started with LinkedIn Learning

Community

As part of our ambition to raise £1 million for our charity partner Age UK, we are proud to be hosting a YBS Fest - a family & friends fun day. 

There are many ways you can get involved (There are a number of intranet links here, please ask one of your team to share the information with you), from buying tickets to join us on Sunday 18th September,  entering one of the competitions to be in with a chance to win £50 Pets at home or a £50 Lakeland voucher and fundraising during Festival Week. We are so grateful for everyone's fundraising efforts and currently have raised £791,000. 

A special thank you to Rosemary Rettalick from Market Weighton agency, who walked 10miles across the Pennine Walk to raise money for Age UK.