Exective Summary of Cognisco's work within one of the worlds leading banks.

1. Setting the Customer Service Gold Standard for a Global Retail Bank
A leading global Bank and Financial Services provider
operating in more than 45 countries and employing over
140,000 staff worldwide.
The Key Objective:
To be the first choice for the consumer by leading with
Customer Service Excellence. Call Centre Operations (UK &
India) were the initial focus of the project with an intention to
extend the programme across the Branch Network.
The Challenge:
Despite continual investment in training, e-learning and knowledge management, staff members
were still making small but consistent errors in handling basic customer queries, resulting in
dissatisfied customers and increased operational costs and inefficiencies.
Who had the challenge:
Senior Directors, responsible for the performance of the Bank’s Direct Channels were the key
stakeholders but internal service providers from Knowledge, Talent, Learning and Development
were also key to the programme’s success.
Cognisco Provided Expert Occupational Psychologists, Consultancy and a unique and penetrative
Situational Judgement Assessment Process to:
Assess Banking Staff and Advisors to identify training and coaching needs, which began to identify
broken and complex processes and gaps in the training; allowing the individual and manager to act
and grow Personal Bankers to be expert advisors working towards improvements in customer
experience. Continuously reassess Advisors and Personal Bankers to measure the effectiveness of
the training which in the case of this Bank increased understanding scores by 20%.
Cognisco Consultants identified question sets in terms of functional relevance and subject matter
through collaborative design and review of the original questions with the Bank. Cognisco reports
identify specific areas for targeted interventions which revealed previously ‘invisible’ gaps in each
individual’s true level of understanding and how they apply the knowledge given to them; ensuring
they were able to respond to and resolve customer queries accurately. Recommendations for
redesign of interventions and training approaches which aligned to business needs and objectives.
Deployed my*KNOW a single platform which provides a lens on existing Knowledge & Learning
systems enabling
Staff to access and take the regular and required assessments in bite-sized modules in an easy and
convenient way which better suited their work pattern. More easily and quickly, find and access
relevant and accurate support, knowledge and training materials. Tracked and monitored staffs own
learning and development progress.
The Knowledge, Learning and Development Team to review and remodel existing tools and
resources and develop new ones certain that they will consistently and accurately meet the specific
needs of the staff, the operational demands of the business and are continually in line with the
corporate strategic objective. Provide Staff access to the knowledge and learning that already exists

2. in a manner which Staff find easy to find, use and engage with. Use the specific and empirical data
and evidence to more accurately plan and budget for future training and development needs.
The Business to gain an immediate benchmark and specific understanding of what each individual
staff member truly understands about each key area or topic and what and where the hidden issues
and gaps are that require remedial action. Address and fix the previously hidden gaps in employee
understanding that were leading to the continual errors in handling customer queries. Ensured that
all new employees were more rapidly and comprehensively “on-boarded”. Saw and understood
emergent trends or gaps in knowledge and understanding that may have posed a risk to the
Customer Service provided. Easily and conveniently tracked, monitored, managed and reported on
staff training and development needs on a specific, individual and team basis; creating more value
from their already significant investment in e-learning, training and Knowledge Management
resources. Extend the success in the Call Centre operation across their Branch network ensuring a
consistent Customer Experience across all channels.
Overall Benefits:
Staff understanding increased by 20% across key topics due to a more effective use of coaching and
development time, with more and better use of existing Learning & Development and Knowledge
Management Resources along with faster more effective and efficient roll out of new policies and
procedures. Visibility and Transparency of staff progress and potential issues at team and individual
level due to Multi-level, Global and real-time reporting aided towards an improvement in employee
engagement. A unique approach to assessment (Situational Judgement), benchmarking of best
practise combined to give an objective measure for ROI and a framework for continual
improvement.
Outcomes
Over 2,000 Call Centre Staff across UK & India are now using My*KNOW to achieve
Customer Service Excellence; and will soon roll out to its Branch network
New areas being assessed and developed on an on-going basis
After a successful pilot stage, out of 2,034 Personal Banking Advisors, 23 UK and 6 India
advisors achieved above standard in all topics – previously there were none.
Overall average understanding increased 20% - meeting the company’s objective.
Significant rises in understanding across topics such as Direct Debits (which had the largest
increase), Banking Enquiries and Debit Interest. Whereas 5.7% of Advisors were identified as
having Misunderstanding which worked out as 122 Advisors.
Cognisco help organisations identify, manage and mitigate the significant risk posed by the
(typical) 30% of their workforce through misunderstanding, lack of confidence or knowledge &
skills gaps. As a result, our international client base spans a broad range of industry sectors, all
of whom are concerned with managing and mitigating People Risk.
We help identify People Risks that could lead to death or personal injury, severe legal or financial
penalties or customer defection due to damaged brand reputation.
Our assessment and consultancy services are supported and delivered through our competency
management and People Risk solution my*KNOW – a SaaS based technology platform that
offers one place for assessing, managing and mitigating risk. For more information please do
contact Amanda Green our Principal Consultant at agreen@cognisco.com, or through our
website information@cognisco.com Find us on: Twitter @Cognisco www.cognisco.com or search
for us on LinkedIn and join the discussion on People Risk LinkedIn Forum.