One year later, we are seeing improvements across all these measures:

Transcription

1 Customer Charter Annual Report 2004

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3 Chief Executive Officer s Review I am pleased to introduce our 2004 Customer Charter Report providing a performance assessment for the 10 promises we have made to our customers around the basic levels of service they should expect when dealing with us. It confirms we have made consistent progress in improving customer service and follows our 2003 Customer Charter Report where we set four key service priorities branch queues, telephone service, processing home loan backlogs and complaints. One year later, we are seeing improvements across all these measures: Queue waiting times have been reduced. The average branch queue waiting time has fallen to 1.1 minutes in 2004 compared to 1.9 minutes in 2003 and 3 minutes in 2002, based on our Mystery Shopping results. Importantly, customers waiting more than five minutes for service in a sample of branches with Q-matic queue management systems have fallen substantially to 9% in September 2004 compared to 30% in September Telephone service standards have improved. The target to answer calls to ANZ s customer service number within one minute was achieved for 93% of calls in 2004, compared to 85% of calls in Backlogs in answering standard mortgage applications have been reduced. 4,311 home loan applications were unacceptably delayed during 2004 compared to 10,075 in Strong performances were also achieved in account opening for personal banking accounts, personal loans and car loans. It is also pleasing to be recognised through awards such as Bank of the Year from Personal Investor magazine and Australian Banking and Finance magazine, and customer service awards from the Customer Service Institute of Australia. This performance is the result of hard work and commitment from everyone in our businesses - our frontline staff who handle day-to-day interactions with our customers, and those who support our customer-facing staff in so many ways. It also shows that being very clear about what we want to achieve can produce much better outcomes for our customers. However, we have plenty of room to further improve our performance and to create a distinctive service experience for our customers. Our challenge is to maintain our energy and focus around these basic issues of service such as customer wait times during peak periods and timely answering of home loan enquiries. We also know that fixing the causes of customer complaints, not just resolving them more quickly, is important. We will also be reviewing our Customer Charter to ensure it stays relevant to our customers. It is an important part of the customer-focused culture we are trying to create at ANZ and I look forward to updating you on our progress next year. John McFarlane Chief Executive Officer Customer complaints fell by 11% during 2004 and there has been a substantial improvement in the time taken to resolve complaints. 78% of complaints were resolved within 48 hours and 93% within 10 working days, compared to 56% within 10 working days in This year, complaints were resolved in 2 days on average compared to more than 8 days in

4 Promise 1 Simple accounts, fees and charges We will keep our accounts and fee structures simple and transparent: All our communications will be concise and clear We will help you understand the total cost of your loan by giving you access to tools to make comparisons and well-informed decisions We will provide you with simple choices for everyday personal banking: Unlimited ANZ transactions for a $5 monthly fee, or A set number of free ANZ transactions and a low fee for every additional transaction There will be no monthly fee charged on our standard variable home loan We continued to display our updated customer brochures which are grouped according to customer needs rather than our own product categories (for example, Everyday Banking and Saving and Buying a Property ) in our branches, in keeping with our commitment to plain language and user-friendliness. In our September 2004 Customer Experience survey 1 we asked customers how satisfied they were that all communication received from ANZ is concise and clear, and they rated their satisfaction at 7.4 out of 10. We also continued to help customers understand the total cost of their home loan with ANZ by displaying the Comparison Rate in all our branches. The comparison rate reveals the total cost of a loan (not just the interest rate), allowing customers to compare apples with apples when choosing a loan. It takes into consideration the costs associated with setting up a loan including the interest rate, the loan approval fee and any other up-front or ongoing fees. It excludes government fees and charges, because they are standard across all loans and one-off fees, and charges that may only apply in specific circumstances, such as charges for overdue payments. research group Cannex said There is no category that they fail in, and several they excel in which means that someone can walk into any ANZ branch and be confident that there will be a quality product available whether it's a home loan, or a credit card or a term deposit. Basically, they are good at everything. Personal Investor magazine also recognised ANZ as Home Lender of the Year and the following loan products were awarded a gold medal: ANZ Fixed Rate Home Loan ANZ Fixed Rate Residential Investment Loan ANZ Equity Manager ANZ Car Loan ANZ Variable Rate Business Loan ANZ Breakfree (premium loan package) Our customers satisfaction with their main ANZ transaction account improved to 8.3 out of 10 (from 7.5 last year), and their overall satisfaction with their most recent ANZ mortgage improved to 8.2 (7.7 last year). We continue to look for opportunities to simplify our accounts through initiatives such as our Easy to do Business With program. 1 Customer satisfaction results quoted in this report are from research surveys conducted for ANZ by Roberts Research Group. Our Comparison Rate Calculator continued to be available on anz.com to make it even easier for customers to compare products and choose the one they feel is right for them. We kept our promise to provide customers with simple choices for everyday personal banking through our Access Advantage account, which offers unlimited ANZ transactions for a $5 monthly fee, and through our Access Select account, which offers unlimited deposit transactions, six free electronic withdrawals and a low fee for additional withdrawals. We also continued to offer our standard variable home loan with no monthly fee. ANZ is recognised in the industry for our simple account and fee structures. Announcing our 5th consecutive win in Personal Investor magazine s Bank of the Year awards, independent 2

5 Promise 2 Simple, fast account opening We will refund one month s standard fee or its equivalent if we do not meet our account opening standards: Personal Banking we will have your account available within 24 hours of satisfying identity requirements Personal Loans we will answer standard loan applications within one (1) working day Home Loans we will answer standard loan applications within two (2) working days Car Loans we will answer standard loan applications within one (1) working day Personal Banking Personal Banking accounts in branches are opened using an automatic online system, and system uptime is our measure for account opening times. System uptime reports indicate that our system was available to open accounts, when identity requirements had been satisfied, for 99.9% of the time. In addition, personal banking accounts are also opened through the telephone and the internet, for which tracking mechanisms were established in February Whilst we identified 4 cases where refunds were required and refunded $20 in fees to customers, we need to ensure that we have a consistent process for identifying refunds across all our channels. Personal Loans We answered 91,361 out of 91,370 (99.9%) standard personal loan applications within one working day, and refunded $90 to customers. In the previous year, we answered 75,311 out of 75,315 (99.9%) applications within one working day and we refunded $40 to customers. Home Loans Out of a total of 299,883 standard home loan applications answered, we identified 4,311 cases where our answer was unacceptably delayed because of operational issues in home loan processing and we refunded $43,110 in fees to customers. Last year, 10,075 delays were identified and we refunded $100,750 to customers. Most home loan applications made in branches are auto-approved, however we were unable to quantify those that were delayed and need to introduce more accurate measuring processes to do so. Car Loans We answered 128,825 out of 128,910 (99.9%) standard car loan applications within one working day, and refunded $1,535 in total to customers for whom we did not meet our standard. In the previous year, we answered 144,127 out of 144,288 (99.9%) applications within one working day and refunded $2,576 to customers. We have made significant progress in meeting our promises with the number of refunds decreasing since last year. We implemented a series of initiatives during the year to improve our account opening performance on more than half a million loan applications we received, including: improving our processes to minimise errors; training more staff to cater for increased applications; launching an online application for Personal Loans, and automating some aspects of our Car Loans application process. We continue to monitor our systems and processes to make sure our customers can experience simple, fast account opening with ANZ, and we will take steps to improve our performance in answering home loan applications. 3

6 Promise 3 Quick, convenient branch banking We know that access to face-to-face banking is important to you. We are committed to delivering this service: Our tellers will aim to serve you within five (5) minutes of your arrival We will keep a selection of our Victorian branches open at times that are more convenient to you, during weekdays and on Saturdays Over the next six months we will review our branch opening times nationally We will give you adequate notice of changes to branch locations, working to minimise the effect on you As at September 2004, we had installed Q-matic systems in 99 branches nationally to help us identify how long customers wait for service and plan our staffing accordingly to reduce customer wait times. Of these branches, 98 (99%), met our current target to serve an average of 80% of our customers in less than five minutes, compared to 53 out of 78 branches (68%) nationally in September In September 2004, we served 91% of all our customers at Q-matic branches in less than five minutes. This means that in September 2004, only 9% of our customers waited more than five minutes to be served, compared to more than 30% in September We also served 99% of our customers in less than 10 minutes. Our other means of measuring queue wait times is through our monthly Mystery Shopping program, which is conducted by an external firm. In this program, each of our branches is visited once a month to assess branch performance against our service standards. This indicates that the average customer wait time in our branches was 1.1 minutes, compared to 1.9 minutes in We reviewed our branch opening times during the year to identify branches that would open for extended hours around the Easter holidays and 166 branches opened for extended hours during this time. Percentage of customers served in 5 and 10 minutes 100% 95% 90% 85% 80% 75% 70% Oct-03 Nov-03 Dec-03 Jan-04 Feb-04 Mar-04 Apr-04 May-04 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug -04 Sep-04 % customers served within 5 mins % customers served within 10 mins Based on Q-matic branch data 4

7 Percentage of Q-matic branches meeting standard Average Queue Wait Times 100% 90% 80% % 60% 50% Minutes % 0 Oct-03 Nov-03 Dec-03 Jan-04 Feb-04 Mar-04 Apr-04 May-04 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug -04 Sep-04 Oct-03 Nov-03 Dec-03 Jan-04 Feb-04 Mar-04 Apr-04 May-04 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug -04 Sep-04 Based on branch Mystery Shopping Of our Victorian branches, 44 remained open for extended hours to make branch banking more convenient for our customers. For branch relocations, our policy is to advise customers in writing six weeks in advance of branch relocation, and to notify customers of the forthcoming relocation through the branch itself closer to the time of the change. Our frontline staff have taken ownership for the customer experience in our branches and customer feedback indicates we are making good progress in this area. Our customer satisfaction with branches increased to 8.1 out of 10 (from 7.7 last year), satisfaction with hours of operation increased to 7.4 (7.0 last year), and satisfaction with ANZ s staff and service improved to 8.0 (7.7 last year). ANZ s Personal Banking division received a Highly Commended citation in the Customer Service Institute of Australia s 2003 Service Excellence Awards and our Victorian division was the winner in the Regional Large Business category. We implemented a targeted program to reduce customer wait times by monitoring customer wait times, identifying patterns for delays, changing staff rosters where required, and educating our staff. We know that some customers wait for more than 10 minutes to be served, especially during peak periods such as lunchtime and after holidays, and we now need to find ways to serve customers quickly at these times. Our Mystery Shopping program continued to provide our frontline staff and branch teams with independent feedback on their customer service performance every month. These results showed steady improvement, demonstrating the ongoing commitment of our frontline teams to improving our customers experience in our branches. We now need to consistently deliver good customer service in all our branches. 5

8 Promise 4 24 hour, 7 day accessibility We will provide 24 hour, 7 day banking services through a combination of phone banking, call centres, internet banking, EFTPOS and ATMs: Our Internet banking service, EFTPOS service and our web site will be available more than 99% of the time Our automated phone banking service on and our ATMs will be available more than 98% of the time Over the next year we will be adding up to 100 new ATMs across Australia Our enquiries phone service will be available from 8am to 8pm on weekdays Our Credit Card enquiries phone service on and our Lost and Stolen Cards hotline on will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Our Esanda phone service on will be available from 8am to 8pm AEST weekdays and 9am to 5pm AEST Saturdays Overall, we performed better than our internet banking target of 99% availability during scheduled times except in January 2004, when technical problems kept internet banking availability below our target level at 97.6%. Our website, was available 100% of the time and EFTPOS availability was also better than our target of 99%. We performed consistently better than our phone banking and ATM banking target of 98%, with these banking channels being available 99.4% and 98.7% of scheduled times respectively. We installed 56 new ATMs during the year. Our Enquiries phone service, Credit Card Enquiries service, Lost and Stolen Cards hotline, and Esanda phone service were also available throughout the year during the promised times. Our non-branch channels offer customers improved access to conduct their banking, and we met all of our promises to provide 24 hour, 7 day accessibility to non-branch banking channels, except for internet banking availability in January Our customer satisfaction with our 24 hour, 7 day services improved satisfaction with telephone banking went up to 8.2 out of 10 from 7.7 last year, EFTPOS to 8.6 from 8.3, internet banking to 8.4 from 8.2, and ATM to 8.2 from 8.1. These results are also evidence of the improvements we have made on providing these important services. We will aim to meet these high standards once again in We are meeting our standards for providing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service to our customers 100% % 98% 97% 96% 95% 94% 93% 92% 91% 90% ATM Phone Banking Internet EFTPOS ATM Phone Internet EFTPOS Banking Banking Banking Our promise 6

9 Promise 5 Fast, efficient phone service Many transactions can be completed quickly over the phone by calling ANZ on or our Credit Card enquiries phone service on These are our promises if you wish to speak to a customer service representative: We will aim to answer your call within one (1) minute of you pressing 0 to speak with a customer service representative We will advise you of the expected time before your call is answered if it is likely to take longer than 30 seconds If you need phone access to your branch, please ask the customer service representative who answers your call We answered 93% of calls to our number, and 92% of calls to our number, within one minute. This compares to 85% of calls to , and 80% of calls to , answered within one minute in We have an automated message advising customers how long they can expect to wait if we are unable to answer their call within 30 seconds. Our policy requires Customer Service Consultants to transfer customer calls to a branch where requested; we monitor our performance on this promise through periodic quality assurance reviews which indicate that calls are transferred to branches where requested. Our response times to customer calls to our enquiries number and our credit card enquiries number have improved significantly since last year. This follows increased management attention and improved processes at our Contact Centre to meeting our customer promises and delivering a high standard of service. Our customers satisfaction with the Contact Centre improved to 8.2 out of 10 (from 7.6 last year). We will continue to focus on delivering these high standards consistently. Percentage of calls answered within 1 minute 100% 95% 90% 85% Oct-03 Nov-03 Dec-03 Jan-04 Feb-04 Mar-04 Apr-04 May-04 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug-04 Sep enquiries Credit Card enquiries 7

10 Promise 6 Respect for personal information and privacy We will keep any information you have provided to us private. The ANZ Privacy Policy is available at For the purposes of this report, the number of privacyrelated enquiries or complaints we receive from our customers to our Customer Response Centre is used to measure our performance on this promise. During the year, we received 68 such enquiries or complaints and we rectified the 9 cases that required further action. This compares to 95 enquiries or complaints received last year and 44 cases requiring further action. We implemented an incident reporting process during the year to enable frontline staff to report privacy concerns, and we have also strengthened our risk management processes. However, we need to improve our reporting for privacy enquiries raised through other channels. We take our privacy obligations very seriously and continue to educate our staff about the importance of respecting customers personal information and privacy, and the steps they need to take to do so. All staff, temporary staff and contractors are required to complete an adequate level of training in Privacy, even if they do not deal directly with customers. In addition, staff have access to a practical Protecting our Customers Privacy resource site to help them meet our Privacy obligations, including detailed guidelines, a list of frequently asked questions and answers, and day-to-day tips. We implemented a new incident reporting process for frontline staff to help them report any incident with risk implications, including privacy, to a central team. This allows us to monitor such situations more closely, take corrective action where needed and to take steps to prevent their recurrence. 8

11 Promise 7 Helping you understand our communications We will write all letters, brochures, ATM messages and other notices in plain language. In all our communications we will help you understand what they mean for you. For the purposes of this report, our performance on this promise is measured by our customer s overall satisfaction with our communication. When customers were asked overall, how satisfied are you with ANZ s communication?, they rated their satisfaction at 7.4 out of 10, up from 7.1 last year. This year, we also asked our customers how satisfied are you that letters, brochures, ATM messages and other notices are written in plain language? Our customers rated their satisfaction with this measure at 7.6 out of 10. We have a range of writing and communication resources, guidelines and tools available to staff to help us communicate with our customers in a way that is easy to understand. There is much more we can do in this area such as simplifying the language we use in letters and getting more feedback about the quality of our communication. This feedback will also help us with our Financial Literacy program. 9

12 Promise 8 Swift resolution of complaints If we make a mistake, we will put it right. We will respond to your complaint within 48 hours and let you know who is responsible for managing your case. Our Customer Liaison unit will work with you to resolve your case quickly and within a maximum of 10 working days. When this is not possible, we will contact you within 10 working days to let you know how much longer the matter should take to resolve. If you have a complaint please contact us by: Phone: Mail: FREECALL (8am to 5pm) ANZ Customer Response Centre 100 Queen Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Fax: YourFeedback@anz.com Our Customer Advocate has the power to review your complaint if a satisfactory resolution is not achieved. You can contact the Customer Advocate on weekdays from 8am to 5pm. The Customer Advocate s role and our full resolution process is detailed in our brochure Resolving your Complaint. Our Customer Response Centre (formerly National Customer Liaison) received 11% fewer complaints this year -30,003 compared to 33,966 complaints received last year, and we responded to 99% of the complaints received within 48 hours. We resolved 78% of these complaints within 48 hours and 93% within 10 working days (compared to 56% last year). We notified 97% of those customers whose complaints would take more than 10 working days to resolve (98% last year). We are determined to solve our customers problems quickly and we have made strong progress in doing so; this year, we took an average of 2 days to resolve complaints, compared to more than 8 days last year. When we have been unable to resolve a complex complaint, ANZ s Customer Advocate takes up the case to resolve the complaint quickly and fairly. In the past twelve months, 91 matters were referred to ANZ s Customer Advocate for review, 64 of which were resolved. Of these, 31% of findings were for the customer, 48% for ANZ and 21% for both. The other 27 matters were referred to specific ANZ business units to resolve as they were complaints that had not previously been raised with them. We implemented a series of initiatives during the year to improve our performance: simplifying our complaint resolution process increasing the discretions available to our frontline staff to resolve complaints on the spot establishing a team of senior representatives from different business units to review and resolve complaints on a daily basis bringing together our customer liaison and feedback teams into one central Customer Response team improving the way we analyse and interpret complaints, to give management a clearer view of the issues at the heart of these problems. Quick and effective resolution of our customers complaints will continue to be an area of focus for us again in We will also turn our attention to fixing the causes of our complaints. Number of complaints recieved by Customer Repsonse Centre Complaints resolved 100% 95% 90% 85% 80% 75% 70% 65% Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Complaints received in 2004 Complaints received in 2003 Resolved within 10 working days in 2004 Resolved within 10 working days in

13 Average days to resolve Days Avg-03 Oct-03 Nov-03 Dec-03 Jan-04 Feb-04 Mar-04 Apr-04 May-04 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug-04 Sep-04 11

14 Promise 9 Building relationships with the community We are committed to contributing to the communities to which we belong: We will maintain our banking presence in the rural communities we are currently servicing We will continue to provide: Unlimited fee-free over the counter transactions for customers aged 60 and over 15 fee-free transactions and no monthly fee for Centrelink payment recipients and health care cardholders Paid leave for staff who volunteer for community service. We maintained all our rural branches as promised and opened one new branch at Narellan (NSW). We continued to offer unlimited fee-free over the counter banking to seniors, and we also continued our 15 fee-free transactions offer for Centrelink payment recipients and health care cardholders. We continue to provide one day s paid leave for staff who volunteer for community service. Our community banking accounts are unique in the industry and make a tangible difference to seniors, government benefit recipients and the disabled. We also continued our strong contribution to meaningful community causes, nationally as well as locally. This commitment to the communities we serve is demonstrated in many ways including: Our Financial Literacy program, which now extends to our award-winning Saver Plus matched savings program, the unique MoneyMinded financial education program, and the training and materials available for our frontline staff to help customers struggling to understand and manage their money The ANZ Community Fund, which has seen our frontline teams contribute over $300,000 to local community initiatives of their choice The ANZ Staff Foundation, which has donated over $186,000 to Australian charities Seeds of Renewal, a grants program run with the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, which has offered $300,000 in small grants to rural communities. 12

15 Promise 10 Accountability through an independent audit This Customer Service Charter will be reviewed annually. ANZ s external auditors will independently audit our performance against these promises every year and we will publicly report the results. We had our performance against this Charter reviewed by ANZ s Group Audit team and reviewed by our external auditors, KPMG. KPMG s report appears below. Our Customer Service Charter is an important part of our focus to improve our customer service in the areas important to our customers. Following feedback from our auditors last year, we established individual and team responsibilities for each of our promises. We also introduced a regular and systematic review of our performance so that we could target the areas that need attention. Our Customer Charter Board, comprising senior executives from our various businesses, meets monthly to review our performance against our promises and to identify the improvements that are needed. We have made a strong effort during the year to improve our performance, reporting and management controls for our Charter promises, as detailed under each promise in this report. These initiatives have resulted in an all-round improvement on our promises. We are committed to sustaining this performance and to further improving our performance in the specific areas mentioned in this report. We also need to review our Charter to make sure we are in touch with the expectations of our customers and our communities. Our auditors have advised us that it is difficult to audit some of the promises contained in our Charter due to the limitations in our definitions or in some of our systems and processes. We will now review our promises to increase their relevance to our customers and to ensure we can clearly measure what we promise. We will also identify what we can do in these areas without spending money that could be better used to improve customer service. Independent review report to the directors of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ( ANZ ) Scope We have reviewed the accompanying Performance Report of the ANZ Customer Service Charter ( the Charter ) for the period 1 October 2003 to 30 September The Performance Report provides information about the performance of ANZ against its promises as set out in the Charter under the heading How we performed for each promise. The information under the heading for each promise does not form part of this review. ANZ management are responsible for preparing a Performance Report that is accurate, and not false or misleading, and for ensuring that there are systems, internal controls, procedures and processes in place to enable accurate and complete measurement and monitoring of Charter performance. Our review has been conducted in accordance with Australian Auditing Standards applicable to review engagements. Our review included a review of the systems, procedures and controls implemented by management which monitor ANZ s level of compliance with each of the promises set out in the Customer Service Charter. A review is limited primarily to inquiries of entity personnel, inspection of evidence and observation of, and inquiry about, the operation of the control procedures for a small number of transactions or events. We have not provided an opinion on the performance of the Charter taken as a whole. In addition, we do not provide an opinion on the appropriateness and completeness of the performance measures selected by management for each promise. Inherent limitations Because of the inherent limitations in any system of internal controls it is possible that errors or irregularities may occur and not be detected. A review is not designed to detect all weaknesses in control procedures or compliance with the Charter as it is not performed continuously throughout the period and the tests performed are on a sample basis. Also a review does not provide all evidence that would be required in an audit thus the level of assurance provided is less than that given in an audit. We have not performed an audit and, accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion. Qualification The level of performance reported by management in relation to performance of account opening for Mortgages (Promise No. 2) and Privacy (Promise No. 6) is based on identified promise breaches by staff and / or customers. However, we note that the systems, internal controls, procedures and processes are not able to determine the completeness of breach reporting for these promises. We have not been able to provide an opinion on Promise No. 7 Helping you understand our communications as management do not have any measures by which to objectively measure performance. Qualified review statement As a result of our review, which is not an audit, except for the matters referred to in the qualification section, nothing has come to our attention to indicate that the level of performance reported by ANZ in respect of each promise under the heading How We Performed in the attached Performance Report for the period from 1 October 2003 to 30 September 2004 prepared by management is not fairly stated. KPMG MA Somerville Partner Melbourne 24 November

16 Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ABN Item No W62363