The client experience is everything
the client sees, hears, feels, touches and does when interacting
with us, whether through in-branch client service representatives,
banking, insurance, corporate, investment or brokerage representatives
over the telephone or through online services. To deliver a truly
superior client experience we seek to serve clients the way they
want to be served while providing a consistent, proactive and valued
experience across all distribution channels. We are transforming
our processes to be simple, flexible
and efficient while using technology to leverage the information
clients have entrusted with us.
Our activities are focused on attracting
a greater share of our clients’ business
and building deeper client relationships to enhance our position
in all markets. Deploying our strengths to create the best solutions
for clients across our various businesses, geographies and products
will help us generate additional value and leverage our infrastructure
and portfolio of assets across North America.
Each of our business segments moved
to enhance its clients’ experiences
in 2003. A few examples are provided below.
An effective problem resolution process
is necessary to build strong client relationships and lasting loyalty.
With this in mind, RBC Royal Bank launched a new process across
all Canadian branches, business centres and telephone banking contact
centres designed to strengthen problem resolution and ensure clients
receive a consistent level of service regardless of the channels
they use or the business they have with us. Early results indicate
that 70 per cent of problems are being resolved at the first point of contact.
Employees are also supported by a specialized
client care team, with a mandate to resolve more complex client
problems and undertake research to identify root causes. A key
element of the problem resolution process includes tracking every
client problem to proactively identify and resolve systemic issues.
We also introduced the use of digital
imaging technology for tracing cheques. With over 1.2 million trace
requests per year, employees in our Operations and Service Delivery
Centres are now able to provide information to clients immediately,
rather than in the days or weeks previously required. This capability
will be expanded to branch and call centre employees during the first quarter 2004.
Client relationships are being further
strengthened through an enhanced RBC Referrals program that brings
access to services and products from all RBC companies to our clients.
This cross-selling initiative introduces clients to financial specialists from across the
organization to make it easy to do business across the enterprise,
contributing to a superior client experience, better client retention
and higher revenues. In 2003, the total number of referrals increased
by 52 per cent. We referred $1.1 billion of business internally and,
as a result, captured $2.8 billion of new business transactions from
our competitors. That’s over $2.50 of new business for every
dollar of business referred internally.
As a leading provider of travel insurance
in North America, RBC Insurance is committed to ensuring that travel
agents who distribute our products are provided with comprehensive
product education through proprietary sales training programs.
Our sales and training professionals
work with travel agents to enhance their knowledge of travel insurance
and their ability to offer the product effectively. As a complement
to these face-to-face training sessions, travel agents – and ultimately travellers – benefit
from a new training package called RBC’s eLearning Reference
Tool. This online training program is delivered by RBC Insurance
through its Internet-based WorldProtect booking system and provides
enhanced product and sales information for the travel agent on important
issues that affect travellers. Travel agents who participated in
the pilot launch scored the tool’s effectiveness and content
very highly in a recent survey.
The past year was challenging for travellers
and the travel industry, as a result of the war in Iraq, Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and ongoing threats of terrorism.
RBC Insurance demonstrated its commitment by meeting the needs
of travellers from product sales to speedy processing of claims.
Throughout these and other situations, we worked with our clients
and travel agents on an individual basis to evaluate and develop
solutions based on their specific needs.
In fact, our Q2 client satisfaction survey indicated all aspects
of the claims process were rated highly, including simplicity of
process, quick response time and claim settlement time.
In July 2003, RBC Insurance launched
a pilot of its Canadian tele-underwriting process for life insurance
brokers. This telephone application process offers added benefits for our clients by eliminating the need
for detailed medical information and longer applications and thus
providing a faster process for application, reducing the time by
a minimum of three to five days. While the program is being
initially rolled out with a group of 135 business partners, we
plan to expand this process to other insurance products and to
all business partners by Q2 of 2004.
In early 2003, the RBC Insurance “Protection for the Big Things
in Life” campaign described to clients the benefits of
insuring mortgages and loans with life and disability insurance protection.
Client surveys indicated the campaign material better explained the
products, resulting in increased satisfaction: the key driver of
satisfaction of written communication increased to 39 per cent in
the second quarter of 2003 from 29 per cent a year earlier.
The creation of RBC
Investments Financial Planning (a shared business between RBC Banking and RBC Investments)
in November 2001 changed the way we serve financial planning clients by facilitating
long-term relationships with trusted RBC advisors. Financial
Planning differentiates itself by addressing clients’ investments, credit
and banking needs while fully leveraging the capability of the whole
organization. As a result, financial planners have an ability
to meet clients’ needs and can develop professional and customized
plans that align with clients’ objectives.
Through technology such as ClientLink,
RBC Investments has further improved its ability to manage and
strengthen client relationships. ClientLink is a contact and portfolio
management application, which helps investment advisors deliver
professional money management, accurate and customized reporting,
regular portfolio reviews and ongoing contact with their clients.
In today’s online trading markets, institutional investors
value ease of execution, speed of transactions and greater flexibility.
RBC Capital Markets has pioneered online trading solutions, particularly
in the areas of foreign exchange and fixed income products,
to provide clients with flexible and efficient trading
services.
RBC Capital Markets has taken online
trading systems to a higher level with an enhanced version of FX
Direct; an online trading system enabling corporate and institutional
clients to trade and execute currency trades directly with the
market on an around-the-clock basis.
FX Direct provides clients with the flexibility to customize
their deal entry screen with the defaults they want to see. Deal
entry gives competitive quotes in seconds in a format customized
to clients’ requirements. In addition, the indicative rates
window
shows streaming rates on clients’ selected currency pairs.
When the market level is reached, transactions can be efficiently
executed right from the window. Finally, Deal
Blotter offers both
a real-time and historic record of all trading activity, tailored
to the client’s individual view and is easily exported to a
spreadsheet.
In providing clients with a superior
experience, we don’t just
focus on the trade. Client support is provided through every stage
of the trade’s life-cycle – from initial research to
execution to settlement. Recent enhancements allow foreign exchange
orders to be sent directly to us via the Internet. Clients can also
manage their own foreign exchange order book offline to store,
add or amend any of their orders, which can then be easily resubmitted.
RBC Capital Markets foreign exchange trading through electronic channels
is rapidly approaching $1 billion daily.
The security, capacity and flexibility of the Internet make
it the ideal channel for fixed income trading. In early 2003,
we launched bondDirect, which provides institutional traders with
the tools to self-execute trades right from their desktops.
The electronic edge provided by bondDirect provides clients with live pricing that updates automatically and
ensures orders are priced and executed automatically. It provides
clients with access to information on thousands of bond issues
including bid offer pricing, ratings, security and security identification numbers. Clients also
have the flexibility of directly ticketing a trade into one
account or multiple accounts.
With ongoing market and competitive
pressures, RBC Global Services recognizes the importance of providing
clients with unique products, services and solutions to meet the
growing complexity of their needs. Our Client
Solutions Group partners
with clients to identify the potential for process improvements
and strategies for achieving them. Recommendations can range from
internal restructuring of specific
core functions to achieve process efficiencies, to acquisitions
or outsourcing. This comprehensive service has contributed to enhancing
the efficiency and financial performance of our institutional
clients. The drive for
efficiency creates the need for electronic-based
solutions such as RBC Express. This online transaction and information
service combines the suite of cash management products offered
by RBC Global Services and will soon provide access to products
from other RBC businesses, such as FX Direct by RBC Capital Markets,
through a single integrated Web portal. With RBC
Express, our business
clients’ cash management experience is fully integrated and
seamless across the organization, making it more convenient for
our business clients to manage daily financial operations.
Since its introduction in November 2002, over 1,100 business clients
have enrolled in the service, with half new to RBC Global Services.
RBC Global Services will be adding other services and products
to this online channel throughout 2004.
Our innovative online services, webdoxs and paytickets.ca, help us to maintain our leadership position
with public sector clients by improving efficiencies in their operations. For example,
paytickets.ca provides municipalities with a new payment channel
for parking tickets. The consumer adoption rate is strong, with
most municipalities experiencing a conversion of 15 per cent of
payment volumes to this new channel within three months of implementation.
RBC Global Services regularly assesses
client priorities and satisfaction levels through face-to-face
interviews, internal reviews and objective third-party surveys.
Our proprietary Client Consultation Survey is conducted every
18 months by an external research firm.
The findings are analyzed internally and action plans are
developed in response to specific suggestions. As a result
of its findings, we have developed more robust investment
analytics and enhanced our ability to service clients over the
Internet.
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