Financial Services Company Uses Performance Management Solution To Consolidate Regional Service Centers

A large financial services company had been established with a vision to become a leader in providing investors with innovative new ways to reach their financial goals. As a large distributor of variable annuities, with a strong offering of mutual funds, the company had done just that. Success for the company had not been measured by revenue growth alone, but by the satisfaction of its customers and employees. In fact, the company earned a number one ranking in customer satisfaction according to a recent Dalbar survey that compares companies within specific industries. And, the company received further acknowledgement as one of the best companies to work for in the Fortune magazine top 100 list.

Despite their success, the company was dedicated to raising the bar. They had been meeting their goals, but wanted to take it to the next level – achieve more with less.

The opportunity for the company was to restructure their service center regions to remove inefficiencies and standardize the customer experience across geographies. The regional structure had many inherent problems including process redundancies, non-essential task execution and uneven workload distributions. Another factor creating problems was different regional market growth rates that caused work and resources to be moved on a daily basis to accommodate demand. All of these were making service delivery inconsistent. Processing in one area could take place in 24 hours while in another it could take much longer. Timeliness was critical for two reasons. First, processing time can impact the product due to the fast changing nature of the financial markets. Second, the company had earned a reputation for service that they wanted to keep. Processing rates needed to improve. Call center performance was strong, but could be even better.

The company knew that process consolidation would increase efficiencies, but they felt they lacked the internal expertise and full time manpower needed to make this transition seamless to their customers. As practitioners of Six Sigma, employing a number of black belts, they understood the processes and the potential obstacles, but felt they lacked the knowledge to measure the financial impact of the changes that needed to take place. Further, they were concerned about how to successfully engage managers and employees in the implementation of massive organizational change. Realizing dramatic improvements was a critical part of justifying all of the change.