ABN AMRO
After several years of restructuring and cost cutting, ABN AMRO’s challenge in 2003 was to refocus the Dutch operations fully on raising client satisfaction and revenues. This meant a new process of change for the group’s employees, and this time it was not about structures and systems but about mindset and behaviour. The 2003 results proved that ABN AMRO started to make this switch just in time, as client satisfaction increased again and financial results reached an excellent level. “At the same time we know that it will take an immense effort to really get there,” says CEO Jan Peter Schmittman. “Where? To being a large multi-channel bank that services millions of clients in a truly personal way. Because that is in my view the real challenge of retail banking, to develop and maintain a meaningful relationship with our clients, while they increasingly use direct channels like internet, call centre and mobile. We have more than 2000 new internet accounts every day. But at the end of the day it is the relationship our clients experience that really makes the difference. It is our ambition to make this experience a personal one, eventually persuading every client to choose us as his or her primary bank. And I am confident we have all it takes to meet that challenge.”
