Catalan neobank 11Onze has taken a novel approach to training its recruits in the art of building personal relationships with customers. Anyone who has used a neobank is aware that without physical branches it is far more difficult to achieve that very thing consumers value in traditional banks – someone they can talk to, and who is designated as their personal banking advisor.
11Onze decided on a pop up Acadamy to take 50 recruits through a 250-hour training course focused on building personal relationships in a digital age.
11Onze COO Darren Smith, who is leading the training, said, “Our philosophy for the whole bank, not just for the campus, is about creating something truly exceptional. The first experience a customer will have with our organisation will be digital and we place a lot of emphasis in the technology and the user experience. However, we wanted to go much further than this. In a digital age we are worried that the personal relationships we build over time get lost and at 11Onze we wanted to bring relationship into fintech banking. We want our customers to have a long and meaningful, personal relationship with our representatives.”
Another reason for setting up the course is Covid-19 and the prevalence of remote working. The neobank’s agents will continue to work from home for some time, which is why 11Onze wanted to ensure that the recruits could also have a means to forge relationships with each other and with senior team members, as well as learn how to build robust client relationships. The bank also wanted the team members to build support networks, which James Sene, Chairman and founder of 11Onze says is impossible to do on Zoom calls.
He said: “The pop up academy was designed to provide a Covid safe and secure environment to give them all the knowledge, skills and tools required to be able to deliver an exceptionally high quality customer service experience. The Academy trained the “whole person” – and our programme places as much emphasis and priority on personal skills, mental and physical health and well-being, as it does on technical and professional skills.”
The importance of teaching customer relationship building
The Academy course delved into psychology and philosophy alongside learning to use new hardware and software. And it included yoga classes. A production team followed the new recruits and asked them to share stories of their journey and development. There is a marketing purpose behind this as Sene points out: “11Onze customers will be able to review and follow the personal journeys of our agents and this will help them develop a real relationship with the customer services representatives.”
He added, “In the digital age, we are concerned that the personal relationship we build will be lost over time, so, at 11Onze we aim to recover that “relationship” aspect that a traditional bank offers to establish links with the community in addition to withdrawing money or depositing it. We want our clients to have a long and meaningful personal relationship with our representatives.”
11Onze makes a very important point with its pop-up Academy idea: whilst challenger banks are often perceived as offering a better service than traditional banks, there are elements of the traditional way that mustn’t be overlooked, particularly customer relationships, because human psychology is very attuned to that need, and fantastic technology won’t easily remove it.